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Production notes: ----------------- Notes (*) are shown in square brackets ([]) at the end of the paragraph in which the note is indicated. Italics are indicated by underscore characters (_) at the start and finish of the italicised words
Many might be saved who now suffer an ignominious and an early death; and many might be so much purified in the furnace of punishment and adversity, as to become the ornaments of that society of which they had formerly been the bane. The vices of mankind must frequently require the severity of justice; but a wise State will direct that severity to the greatest moral and political good. ANON.
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THOMAS LORD VISCOUNT SYDNEY
One of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council,
Chief Justice in Eyre South of Trent,
A Governor of the Charter-house,
and a Vice-President of the Asylum
MY LORD,
The honour that your Lordship has done me, in permitting this volume to go forth into the world under the sanction of your name, demands my warmest acknowledgments. I can only wish that the Work had been more worthy of its patron.
The originator of the plan of colonization for New South Wales was too conspicuous a character to be overlooked by the narrator of its rise and progress. The benevolent mind of your Lordship led you to conceive this method of redeeming many lives that might be forfeit to the offended laws; but which, being preserved, under salutary regulations, might afterward become useful to society: and to your patriotism the plan presented a prospect of commercial and political advantage. The following pages will, it is hoped, serve to evince, with how much wisdom the measure was suggested and conducted; with what beneficial effects its progress has been attended; and what future benefits the parent country may with confidence anticipate.
That your Lordship may long live to enjoy those grateful reflections which a sense of having advanced the public welfare must be presumed to excite; and that our most gracious sovereign, the father of his people, may long, very long reign over these kingdoms, and continue to be served by statesmen of tried talents and integrity, is the earnest prayer of,
MY LORD,
Your Lordship's much obliged,
and most devoted servant,
DAVID COLLINS
Poland Street,
May 25, 1798
Chart of the three harbours of Botany Bay, Port Jackson, and Broken Bay, showing the cultivated grounds in and about the different settlements, with the course of the Rivers Hawkesbury and Nepean, and the situation of the wild cattle to the westward of the last-mentioned river.
To the public the following work is with respectful deference submitted by its author, who trusts that it will be found to comprise much information interesting in its nature, and that has not been anticipated by any former productions on the same subject. If he should be thought to have been sometimes too minute in his detail, he hopes it will be considered, that the transactions here recorded were penned as they occurred, with the feelings that at the moment they naturally excited in the mind; and that circumstances which, to an indifferent reader, may appear trivial, to a spectator and participant seem often of importance. To the design of this work (which was, to furnish a complete record of the transactions of the colony from its foundation), accuracy and a degree of minuteness in detail seemed essential; and on reviewing his manuscript, the author saw little that, consistently with his plan, he could persuade himself to suppress.
For his labours he claims no credit beyond what may be due to the strictest fidelity in his narrative. It was not a romance that he had to give to the world; nor has he gone out of the track that actual circumstances prepared for him, to furnish food for sickly minds, by fictitious relations of adventures that never happened, but which are by a certain description of readers perused with avidity, and not unfrequently considered as the only passages deserving of notice.
Though to a work of this nature a style ornamental and luxuriant would have been evidently inapplicable, yet the author has not been wholly inattentive to this particular, but has endeavoured to temper the dry and formal manner of the mere journalist, with something of the historian's ease. Long sequestered, however, from literary society, and from convenient access to books, he had no other models than those which memory could supply; and therefore does not presume to think his volume proof against the rigid censor: but to liberal criticism he submits, with the confidence of a man conscious of having neither negligence nor presumption to impute to himself. He wrote to beguile the tedium of many a heavy hour; and when he wrote looked not beyond the satisfaction which at some future period might be afforded to a few friends, as well as to his own mind, by a review of those hardships which in common with his colleagues he had endured and overcome; hardships which in some degree he supposes to be inseparable from the first establishment of any colony; but to which, from the peculiar circumstances and description of the settlers in this instance, were attached additional difficulties.
In the progress of his not unpleasing task, the author began to think that his labours might prove interesting beyond the small circle of his private friends; that some account of the gradual reformation of such flagitious characters as had by many (and those not illiberal) persons in this country been considered as past the probability of amendment, might be not unacceptable to the benevolent part of mankind, but might even tend to cherish the seeds of virtue, and to open new streams from the pure fountain of mercy*.
[* "It often happens," says Dr. Johnson, "that in the loose and thoughtless and dissipated, there is a secret radical worth, which may shoot out by proper cultivation; that the spark of heaven, though dimmed and obstructed, is yet not extinguished, but may, by the breath of counsel and exhortation, be kindled into flame . . ."Let none too hastily conclude that all goodness is lost, though it may for a time be clouded and overwhelmed; for most minds are the slaves of external circumstances, and conform to any hand that undertakes to mould them; roll down any torrent of custom in which they happen to be caught; or bend to any importunity that bears hard against them."
Rambler, No. 70.]
Nor was he without hope, that through the humble medium of this history, the untutored savage, emerging from darkness and barbarism, might find additional friends among the better-informed members of civilized society.
With these impressions, therefore, he felt it a sort of duty to offer his book to the world; and should the objects alluded to be in any degree promoted by it, he shall consider its publication as the most fortunate circumstance of his life.
Occurrences such as he has had to relate are not often presented to the public; they do not, indeed, often happen. It is not, perhaps, once in a century that colonies are established in the most remote parts of the habitable globe; and it is seldom that men are found existing perfectly in a state of nature. When such circumstances do occur, curiosity, and still more laudable sentiments, must be excited. The gratification even of curiosity alone might have formed a sufficient apology for the author; but he has seen too much of virtue even among the vicious to be indifferent to the sufferings, or backward in promoting the felicities of human nature.
A few words, he hopes, may be allowed him respecting the colony itself, for which he acknowledges what, he trusts, will be considered as at least an excusable partiality. He bore his share of the distresses and calamities which it suffered; and at his departure, in the ninth year of its growth, with pleasure saw it wear an aspect of ease and comfort that seemed to bid defiance to future difficulties. The hardships which it sustained were certainly attributable to mischance, not to misconduct. The Crown was fortunate in the selection of its governors, not less with respect to the gentlemen who were sent out expressly in that capacity, than in those on whom the temporary administration occasionally devolved.
Under Governor Hunter, who at present presides there, the resources of the country and the energies of the colonists will assuredly be called forth. The intelligence, discretion, and perseverance of that officer will be zealously applied to discover and fix every local advantage. His well-known humanity will not fall to secure the savage islander from injury or mortification; reconcile him to the restraints, and induce him to participate in the enjoyments, of civilized society; and instruct him to appreciate justly the blessings of rational freedom, whose salutary restrictions are not less conducive to individual benefit than to the general weal.
With respect to the resources of the settlement, there can be little doubt, that at this moment it is able to support itself in the article of grain; and the wild stock of cattle to the westward of the Nepean will soon render it independent on this country in the article of animal food. As to its utility, beside the circumstance of its freeing the mother country from the depraved branches of her offspring, in some instances reforming their dispositions, and in all cases rendering their labour and talents conducive to the public good, it may prove a valuable nursery to our East India possessions for soldiers and seamen.
If, beside all this, a whale fishery should be established, another great benefit may accrue to the parent country from the coast of New South Wales.
The island, moreover, abounds with fine timber in every respect adapted to the purposes of ship-building: iron too it possesses in abundance. Coal has been found there, and some veins of copper; and however inconsiderable the quantity of these articles that has been hitherto found, yet the proof of their existence will naturally lead to farther research, and most probably terminate in complete success.
The flax plant grows spontaneously, and may, with the assistance of proper implements and other necessaries, be turned to very profitable account.
The climate is for the most part temperate and healthy; cattle are prolific; and fruits and culinary vegetables thrive with almost a tropical luxuriance.
To be brief: Such is the English Colony in New South Wales, for which the author is anxiously solicitous to obtain the candid consideration of his countrymen; among whom it has been painful to him to remark a disposition too prevalent for regarding it with odium and disgust.
London, May 25, 1798
Transports hired to carry convicts to Botany Bay
The Sirius and the Supply commissioned
Preparations for sailing
Tonnage of the transports
Persons left behind
Two convicts punished on board the Sirius
The Hyaena leaves the Fleet
Arrival of the fleet at Teneriffe
Proceedings at that island
Some particulars respecting the town of Santa Cruz
An excursion made to Laguna
A convict escapes from one of the transports, but is retaken
Proceedings
The fleet leaves Teneriffe, and puts to sea
Proceed on the voyage
Altitude of the peak of Teneriffe
Pass the isles of Sal, Bonavista, May, and St. Iago
Cross the equator
Progress
Arrive at the Brazils
Transactions at Rio de Janeiro
Some particulars of that town
Sail thence
Passage to the Cape of Good Hope
Transactions there
Some particulars respecting the Cape
Depart for New South Wales
Proceed on the voyage
Captain Phillip sails onward in the Supply, taking with him three of the transports
Pass the island of St. Paul
Weather, January 1788
The South Cape of New Holland made
The Sirius and her convoy anchor in the harbour of Botany Bay.
Arrival of the fleet at Botany Bay
The governor proceeds to Port Jackson, where it is determined to fix the settlement
Two French ships under M. de la Perouse arrive at Botany Bay
The Sirius and convoy arrive at Port Jackson
Transactions
Disembarkation
Commission and letters patent read
Extent of the territory of New South Wales
Behaviour of the convicts
The criminal court twice assembled
Account of the different courts
The Supply sent with some settlers to Norfolk Island
Transactions
Natives
Weather
Broken Bay visited
M. de la Perouse sails
Transactions
The Supply returns
Lord Howe Island discovered
The ships for China sail
Some convicts wounded by the natives
Scurvy
New store-house
Necessary orders and appointments
Excursions into the country
New branch of the harbour into Port Jackson
Sheep
Transactions
Transports sail for China
The Supply sails for Lord Howe Island
Return of stock in the colony in May
The Supply returns
Transactions
A convict wounded
Rush-cutters killed by the natives
Governor's excursion
His Majesty's birthday
Behaviour of the convicts
Cattle lost
Natives
Proclamation
Earthquake
Transports sail for England
Supply sails for Norfolk Island
Transactions
Natives
Convicts wounded
Heavy rains
Public works
Sheep stolen
Prince of Wale's birthday
Fish
Imposition of a convict
Natives
Apprehensive of a failure of provisions
Natives
Judicial administration
A convict murdered
Settlement of Rose Hill
The Golden Grove returns from Norfolk Island
The storeships sail for England
Transactions
James Daley tried and executed for housebreaking
Botany Bay examined by the governor
A convict found dead in the woods
Christmas Day
A native taken and brought up to the settlement
Weather
Climate
Report of deaths from the departure of the fleet from England to the
31st of December 1788
New Year's Day
Convicts, how employed
Their disposition to idleness and vice
Her Majesty's birthday kept
Natives
Captain Shea dies
Regulations respecting the convicts
Instances of their misconduct
Transactions
The Supply sails for Norfolk Island
Public Works
Natives
Convicts killed
Stores robbed
The Supply returns
Insurrection projected at Norfolk Island
Hurricane there
Transactions at Rose Hill
Neutral Bay
Smallpox among the natives
Captain Hunter in the Sirius returns with supplies from the Cape of Good Hope
Middleton Island discovered
Danger of wandering in the forests of an unknown country
Convicts
The King's birthday kept
Convicts perform a play
A reinforcement under Lieutenant Cresswell sent to Norfolk Island
Governor Phillip makes an excursion of discovery
Transactions
Hawkesbury River discovered
Progress at Rose Hill
Important papers left behind in England
Barracks
Stock
Intelligence from Norfolk Island
Police established at the principal settlement
A successful haul of fish
A soldier tried for a rape
Provisions begin to fail
Natives
A launch completed
Rats
Ration reduced to two-thirds
Sirius returns to the Cove
One of her mates lost in the woods
Supply sails for Norfolk Island
Utility of the night watch
A female convict executed for house-breaking
Two natives taken
Serious charge against the assistant commissary satisfactorily cleared up
Lieutenant Dawes's excursion
The Supply returns
Transactions
A convict made a free settler
A pleasing delusion
Extraordinary supply of fish
Caesar's narrative
Another convict wounded by the natives
The Supply arrives from Norfolk Island
A large number of settlers sent thither on board the Sirius and Supply
Heavy rains
Scarcity of provisions increasing in an alarming degree
Lieutenant Maxwell's insanity
News brought of the loss of the Sirius
Allowance of provisions still further reduced
The Supply sent to Batavia for relief
Robberies frequent and daring
An old man dies of hunger
Rose Hill
Salt and fishing-lines made
The native escapes
Transactions
The Lady Juliana transport arrives from England
The Guardian
His Majesty's birthday
Thanksgiving for His Majesty's recovery
The Justinian storeship arrives
Full ration ordered
Three transports arrive
Horrid state of the convicts on board
Sick landed
Instance of sagacity in a dog
A convict drowned
Mortality and number of sick on the 13th
Convicts sent to Rose Hill
A town marked out there
Works in hand at Sydney
Instructions respecting grants of land
Mr. Fergusson drowned
Convicts' claims on the master of the Neptune
Transactions
Criminal Court
Whale
Governor Phillip wounded by a native
Intercourse opened with the natives
Great haul of fish
Convicts abscond with a boat
Works
Want of rain
Natives
Supply returns from Batavia
Transactions there
Criminal Courts
James Bloodworth emancipated
Oars found in the woods
A convict brought back in the Supply
A boat with five people lost
Public works
A convict wounded by a native
Armed parties sent out to avenge him
A Dutch vessel arrives with supplies from Batavia
Decrease by sickness and casualties in 1790
New Year's Day
A convict drowned
A native killed
Signal colours stolen
Supply sails for Norfolk Island
H. E. Dodd, Superintendant at Rose Hill, dies
Public works
Terms offered for the hire of the Dutch snow to England
The Supply returns
State of Norfolk Island
Fishing-boat overset
Excessive heats
Officers and seamen of the Sirius embark in the snow
Supply sails for Norfolk Island, and the Waaksamheyd for England
William Bryant and other convicts escape from New South Wales
Ruse, a settler, declares that he can maintain himself without assistance from the public stores
Ration reduced
Orders respecting marriage
Port regulations
Settlers
Public works
A Musket found by a native
Reports of plans to seize boats
Supply arrives from Norfolk Island
The King's birthday
A canoe destroyed
Its evil effects
Corn sown
Battery begun
One hundred and forty acres inclosed for cattle
The Mary Ann arrives
Two criminal courts held
Ration improved
The Matilda arrives
The Mary Ann sails for Norfolk Island
Settlers
The Atlantic and Salamander arrive
Full ration issued
The William and Ann arrives
Natives
Public works
The Salamander sails for, and the Mary Ann arrives from Norfolk Island
Bondel, a native, returns
A seaman, for sinking a canoe, punished
The Gorgon arrives
Commission of emancipation, and public seal
The Active and Queen arrive
Complaints against the master of the Queen
Supply ordered home
Albemarle arrives
Mutiny on board
Britannia and Admiral Barrington arrive
Future destination of the transports
The Atlantic and Queen hired
Atlantic sails for Bengal
Salamander returns from Norfolk Island
Transactions
Public works
Suicide
A party of Irish convicts abscond
The Queen sails for Norfolk Island
Whale fishery
Ration altered
The Supply sails for England
Live stock (public) in the colony
Ground in cultivation
Sick
Run of water decreasing
Two transports sail
Whale fishery given up
The Queen arrives from Norfolk Island
The Marines embark in the Gorgon for England
Ration further reduced
Transactions
Convicts who were in the Guardian emancipated
Store finished
Deaths in 1791
The Queen sails for Norfolk Island
Whalers on their fishing voyages
Convicts missing
Various depredations
Dispensary and bake-house robbed
Proclamation
A criminal court held
Convict executed
Transactions
The Pitt with Lieutenant-Governor Grose arrives
Military duty fixed for Parramatta
Goods selling at Sydney from the Pitt
The Pitt ordered to be dispatched to Norfolk Island
Commissions read
Sickness
The Pitt sails
Mr. Burton killed
Stormy weather
Public works
Regulations respecting persons who had served their terms of transportation
Natives
Mortality in April
Appearance and state of the convicts
Ration again reduced
Quantity of flour in store
Settlers
State of transactions with the natives
Indian corn stolen
Public works
Average prices of grain, etc at Sydney, and at Parramatta
Mortality decreases
King's birthday
The Atlantic returns from Bengal
Account received of Bryant and his companions
Ration farther reduced
Atlantic cleared
Sheep-pens at Parramatta attempted
Quality of provisions received from Calcutta
The Brittania arrives from England
Ration increased
A convict emancipated
Public works
The Britannia cleared
Survey of provisions
Total of cargo received from Bengal
Atlantic sails with provisions for Norfolk Island
Transactions
General behaviour of convicts
Criminal Courts
Prisoner pardoned conditionally
Another acquitted
New barracks begun
Thefts
The Atlantic returns from Norfolk Island
Information
Settlers there discontented
Principal works
The Britannia taken up by the officers of the New South Wales Corps to procure stock
The Royal Admiral East Indiaman arrives from England
Regulations at the store
A Burglary committed
Criminal Court
The Britannia sails
Shops opened
Bad conduct of some settlers
Oil issued
Slops served
Governor Phillip signifies his intention of returning to England
A vessel from America arrives
Part of her cargo purchased
George Barrington and others emancipated conditionally
The Royal Admiral sails
Arrival of the Kitty Transport
£1001 received by her
Hospital built at Parramatta
Harvest begun at Toongabbie
Ration increased
The Philadelphia sails for Norfolk Island
State of the cultivation previous to the governor's departure
Settlers
Governor Phillip sails for England
Regulations made by the Lieutenant Governor
The Hope, an American Ship, arrives
Her cargo purchased for the colony
The Chesterfield whaler arrives
Grant of land to an officer
Extreme heat and conflagration
Deaths in 1792
Prices of Stock, etc
Order respecting spirits
Seamen punished
Convicts enlisted into the new corps
Regulations respecting Divine Service
The Hope sails
The Bellona arrives
Cargo damaged
Information
Two women and a child drowned
The Kitty sails for Norfolk Island
Ration
An Officer sent up to inspect the cultivation at Parramatta
A theft committed
Works
Kangaroo Ground opened
Settlers
Liberty Plains
Conditions
Bellona sails
Transactions
The Shah Hormuzear from Calcutta arrives
Information received by her
The Dholl expended
Sickness and death occasioned by the American spirits
The Chesterfield sent to Norfolk Island
Convicts sell their clothing
Two Spanish ships arrive
Information
Epitaph
A Criminal Court
The Kitty returns from Norfolk Island
Fraud at the store at Parramatta
The Spanish ships sail
The Chesterfield returns from Norfolk Island
A contract entered into for bringing cattle from India to this country
Provisions embarked on board the Bengal ship for Norfolk Island
The Daedalus arrives
Cattle lost
Discoveries by Captain Vancouver
Two natives of New Zealand brought in
Bengal ship sails
Phenomenon in the sky
The hours of labour and ration altered
Lead stolen
Detachment at Parramatta relieved
Accident at that settlement
Lands cleared by officers
Mutiny on board the Kitty
The Kitty sails for England
His Majesty's birthday
State of the provision store
The Britannia arrives
Loss of cattle
General account of cattle purchased, lost in the passage, and landed in New South Wales
Natives
The Daedalus sails for Nootka
A temporary church founded
Criminal court
The colonial vessel launched
A scheme to take a longboat
Two soldiers desert
Counterfeit dollars in circulation
A soldier punished
The Boddingtons arrives from Cork
General Court Martial held
The Britannia hired and chartered for Bengal
The new church opened
Accident
Provisions in store
Corn purchased from settlers
The Britannia sails for Bengal, and the Francis Schooner for New Zealand
Irish convicts steal a boat
The Sugar Cane arrives
Intended mutiny on board prevented
Excursion to the westward
Public works
The Boddingtons and Sugar Cane sail
A mill erected
Thefts committed
Convicts emancipated
Two persons killed by lightning
The Fairy arrives
Farms sold
Public works
The Francis returns from New Zealand
The Fairy sails
Ration altered
Transactions
Harvest begun
Criminal Court held
A convict executed
Provisions
Mill at Parramatta
Christmas Day
Natives
Convicts
Boats
Grants of land
Settlers
Public works
Expenses how to be calculated
Deaths in 1793
Prices of grain, stock, and labour
A murder committed near Parramatta
The Francis sails for Norfolk Island
Provisions
Storm of wind at Parramatta
Crops
A Settlement fixed at the Hawkesbury
Natives
A burglary committed
Samuel Burt emancipated
Death of William Crozier Cook
The watches recovered
The Francis returns from Norfolk Island
Information
The New Zealand natives sent to their own country
Disturbance at Norfolk Island
Court of inquiry at Sydney
The Francis returns to Norfolk Island
Natives troublesome
State of provisions
Alarming State of the provisions
The William arrives with supplies from England, and the Arthur from Bengal
The amor patriae natural to man in all parts of the earth
Information
Mr. Bampton
Captain Bligh
Admiral Barrington transport lost
Full ration issued
Ingratitude and just punishment of the settlers
Buffin's corn-mill set to work
Gaming
Honesty of a native
The Daedalus arrives from America
Information
Female inconstancy, and its consequences
The Arthur sails
The Francis returns from Norfolk Island
A boat stolen
Natives killed
A new mill
Disorder in the eyes prevalent
The William sails
Cultivation
Excursion in search of a river
A storeship arrives
Captain Bampton
Full ration
The Britannia, Speedy, and Halcyon arrive
The Indispensable and Halcyon sail
The Fanny arrives from Bombay
Information
Two convicts executed
The Hope sails
The Speedy sails and returns
Excursion to the western mountains
The Francis returns from Norfolk Island
Corn bills not paid
The Britannia sails for the Cape, and the Speedy on her fishing voyage
Notification respecting the corn bills
The Resolution and Salamander arrive from England
Irish prisoners troublesome
Gales of wind
Natives
Daedalus sails for Norfolk Island
Emancipations
The Fancy sails
A death
Bevan executed
A settler murdered at Parramatta
The Mercury arrives
Spanish ships
Emancipation
Settlers and natives
Civil Court
The Surprize arrives
Deaths
Resolution and Salamander sail
Transactions
The Daedalus returns from Norfolk Island
The Mercury sails for America
The Lieutenant-Governor leaves the Settlement
The Daedalus sails for England, and the Surprize for Bengal
The Experiment arrives
Captain Paterson assumes the government pro tempore
Ration
Deaths in 1794
Gangs sent to till the public grounds
The Francis sails
Regulations for the Hawkesbury
Natives
Works
Weather
Deaths
Produce at the river
Transactions there
Natives
The Francis arrives from the Cape
The Fancy from New Zealand
Information
The Experiment sails for India
A native killed
Weather
Wheat
Criminal Court
Ration reduced
The Britannia hired to procure provisions
Natives at the Hawkesbury
The Endeavour arrives with cattle from Bombay
Deaths
Returns of ground sown with wheat
The Britannia sails for India
The Fancy for Norfolk Island
Convicts
Casualties
Ration
A Criminal and a Civil Court held
Circumstances of the death of Francis T. Daveney
Salt made
Wilson, Knight, and the natives
The new mill
Providence arrives from England
Four convicts brought from Port Stephens
Public labour
Storm
The Fancy arrives from Norfolk Island
The Supply and Reliance arrive
Governor Hunter's commission read
Transactions
The India ships sail
Another arrival from England
Military promotions
Colonial regulations
The Providence, Supply, and Young William sail
The Sovereign storeship arrives from England
Criminal court held
Convict executed
Printing-press employed
Ration
Information from Norfolk Island
The Cattle lost in 1788 discovered
Transactions
Bennillong's Conduct after his return from England
Civil Court held
Harvest
Regulations
Natives
Meteorological phenomenon at the Hawkesbury
Mr. Barrow's death
Deaths in 1795
The Arthur arrives from India
Francis from Norfolk Island
A playhouse opened
Her Majesty's birthday kept
Stills destroyed
Ceres storeship arrives
and Experiment from India
Ship Otter from America
Natives
Harvest got in
Deaths
A hut demolished by the military
A Transport arrives with prisoners from Ireland
A criminal court held
Caesar shot
General court martial
Otter takes away Mr. Muir
Abigail from America arrives
A forgery committed
Works
The Reliance
Particulars respecting Mr. Bampton, and of the fate of Captain Hill and Mr. Carter
A Schooner arrives from Duskey-Bay
Crops bad
Robberies committed
Supply for Norfolk Island
Natives
Bennillong
Cornwallis sails
Gerald and Skirving die
Slops served
Orders
Licences granted
The Supply returns from Norfolk Island
The Susan from North America and the Indispensable from England
A Criminal and Civil Court held
Sick
Thefts committed
The Britannia arrives from Bengal
Mr. Raven's opinion as to the time of making a passage to India
A Civil Court
The Cornwallis and Experiment sail for India
Caution to masters of ships
A Wind-mill begun
Thefts committed
State of the settlers
The Governor goes to Mount Hunter
Regulations
Public works
Deaths
Two men killed; consequent regulations
The Britannia hired to proceed to England
Report of the natives
The Francis arrives from Norfolk Island
Public works
Deaths
A criminal court assembled
A settler executed for murder
The Susan sails
A civil court held
An American ship arrives from Boston
A long-boat lost
Deaths
Weather
A temporary church opened at Parramatta
Appointments
The Supply sails for Norfolk Island and the Cape
Account of stock
Land in cultivation, and numbers in the colony
A murder committed
Britannia sails for England
General observations
Comprising particulars of the Britannia's voyage to England; with remarks on the state of Norfolk Island, and some account of New Zealand.
Particulars of the state of Norfolk Island to the time when the ships left it:
Court of Judicature
Number of Inhabitants
Male Convicts
State of Cultivation
Appropriation of the Land
Statement of the Stock belonging to Government and individuals on the 18th October 1796
Hours of Labour
Ordinary Price of Labour
Average Prices of Provisions raised on the Island
Account of Grain raised on Norfolk Island, from the 6th of March 1788 (when it was first settled) to October 1796
Account of Births and Deaths from November 12th, 1791, to September 31st, 1796
State of the Flax Manufactory
An Account of New Zealand and its inhabitants
A Short Vocabulary of the New Zealand Language
General Remarks
Government and Religion
Stature and Appearance
Habitations
Mode of Living
Courtship and Marriage
Customs and Manner
Superstition
Diseases
Property
Dispositions
Funeral Ceremonies
Language
LIST OF PLATES
View of the Governor's house at Rose Hill in the township of Parramatta.
By water to Parramatta, with a distant view of the western mountains.
South-east view in Sydney, including the church, etc.
Baker's Farm on the banks of the river.
Portraits of Ben-nil-long, Wo-lar-ra-bar-ray, Wo-gul-trow-el Boin-ba, and Bun-de-bun-da.
The Brick Field, or High Road to Parramatta.
View of Sydney in Norfolk Island.
Facsimile of a chart of New Zealand, drawn by Too-gee.
Transports hired to carry convicts to Botany Bay
The Sirius and the Supply commissioned
Preparations for sailing
Tonnage of the transports
Persons left behind
Two convicts punished on board the Sirius
The Hyaena leaves the Fleet
Arrival of the fleet at Teneriffe
Proceedings at that island
Some particulars respecting the town of Santa Cruz
An excursion made to Laguna
A convict escapes from one of the transports, but is retaken
Proceedings
The fleet leaves Teneriffe, and puts to sea
1786.]
The Commissioners of his Majesty's Navy, near the end of the year 1786, advertised for a certain number of vessels to be taken up for the purpose of conveying between seven and eight hundred male and female felons to Botany Bay in New South Wales, on the eastern coast of New Holland; whither it had been determined by Government to transport them, after having sought in vain upon the African coast for a situation possessing the requisites for the establishment of a colony.
The following vessels were at length contracted for, and assembled in the River to fit, and take in stores and provisions, viz the Alexander, Scarborough, Charlotte, Lady Penrhyn, and Friendship, as transports; and the Fishbourn, Golden Grove, and Borrowdale, as store-ships. The Prince of Wales was afterwards added to the number of transports, on a representation being made to the Treasury Board that such an addition was necessary. The transports were immediately prepared for the reception of the convicts, and the store-ships took on board provisions for two years, with tools, implements of agriculture, and such other articles as were considered necessary to a colonial establishment.
October.] On the 24th of October, Captain Arthur Phillip hoisted a pendant on board his Majesty's ship the Sirius of 20 guns, then lying at Deptford. This ship was originally called the Berwick, and intended for the East India Company; but having, while on the stocks, met with some accident by fire, was purchased by Government for a store-ship, and as such had performed one voyage to America. Her burden was about 520 tons; and being, from her construction, well-calculated for this expedition, she was taken into the service as a man of war, and with her capacity changed also her name.
As the government of the intended colony, as well as the command of the Sirius, was given to Captain Phillip, it was thought necessary to appoint another captain to her, who might command her on any service in which she might be employed for the colony, while Captain Phillip should be engaged in his government. For this purpose an order was signed by his Majesty in Council, directing the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to appoint John Hunter esquire (then a master and commander) second captain of the Sirius, with the rank of post. Although this ship mounted only 20 guns, and those but six-pounders, yet on this particular service her establishment was not confined to what is usual in a ship of that class; but, with a first and second captain, she had also three lieutenants, a master, purser, surgeon and two mates, a boatswain, a gunner, and a subaltern's detachment of marines.
The Supply brig was also put into commission, and the command given to Lieutenant Henry Lidgbird Ball. This vessel was to accompany the Sirius as an armed tender; and both ships, having completed their equipment at Deptford-yard, dropped down on the 10th of December to Long Reach, where they took in their guns, powder, and other stores.
1787.]
January.] They were here joined by some of the transports, and continued waiting for orders until the 30th of January 1787, when they sailed for Spithead; which port, however, they were prevented from reaching, by heavy and contrary gales of wind, which they continued to experience both in the Downs and on their passage, until the latter end of the following month.
One or two of the transports had in the mean time arrived at Portsmouth, and the Charlotte and Alexander proceeded to Plymouth, where they were to receive the male and female convicts that were ready for them.
March.] On the 5th of March, the order for their embarkation, together with that of the detachment of marines provided as an escort, was sent from the Secretary of State's office, with directions for their immediately joining the other ships of the expedition at the Motherbank. This was done accordingly; and, every necessary arrangement having taken place, the troops intended for the garrison embarked, and the convicts, male and female, were distributed in the different transports.
May.] On Monday the 7th of May Captain Phillip arrived at Portsmouth, and took the command of his little fleet, then lying at the Motherbank. Anxious to depart, and apprehensive that the wind, which had for a considerable time been blowing from the quarter favourable to his passage down the Channel, might desert him at the moment when he most wished for its continuance, he on the Thursday following made the signal to prepare for sailing. But here a demur arose among the sailors on board the transports, who refused to proceed to sea unless they should be paid their wages up to the time of their departure, alleging as a ground for this refusal, that they were in want of many articles necessary for so long a voyage, which this money, if paid, would enable them to purchase. The custom of their employ, however, being against a demand which yet appeared reasonable, Captain Phillip directed the different masters to put such of their people as refused to proceed with them to sea, on board of the Hyaena frigate, and to receive an equal number of her seamen, who should afterwards be re-exchanged at sea, her captain being directed to accompany the fleet to a certain distance.
This difficulty being removed, and the ship's companies of the Sirius and the Supply having received the usual advance of two months' wages, on Saturday the 12th the men of war and some of the transports got under sail, with a view of dropping down to St. Helen's, and thence proceeding to sea; but the wind falling short, and proving unfavourable, they brought up at Spithead for the night, and at day-break next morning the whole fleet weighed with a fresh breeze, and, having a leading wind, passed without any accident through the Needles.
The transports were of the following tonnage, and had on board the undermentioned number of convicts, and other persons, civil and military, viz
The Alexander, of 453 tons, had on board 192 male convicts; 2 lieutenants, 2 sergeants, 2 corporals, 1 drummer, and 29 privates, with 1 assistant surgeon to the colony.
The Scarborough, of 418 tons, had on board 205 male convicts; 1 captain, 2 lieutenants, 2 sergeants, 2 corporals, 1 drummer, and 26 privates, with 1 assistant surgeon to the colony.
The Charlotte, of 346 tons, had on board 89 male and 20 female convicts; 1 captain, 2 lieutenants, 2 sergeants, 3 corporals, 1 drummer, and 35 privates, with the principal surgeon of the colony.
The Lady Penrhyn, of 338 tons, had on board 101 female convicts; 1 captain, 2 lieutenants, and 3 privates, with a person acting as a surgeon's mate.
The Prince of Wales, of 334 tons, had on board 2 male and 50 female convicts; 2 lieutenants, 3 sergeants, 2 corporals, 1 drummer, and 24 privates, with the surveyor-general of the colony.
The Friendship, (snow,) of 228 tons, had on board 76 male and 21 female convicts; 1 captain, 2 lieutenants, 2 sergeants, 3 corporals, 1 drummer, and 36 privates, with 1 assistant surgeon to the colony.
There were on board, beside these, 28 women, 8 male and 6 female children, belonging to the soldiers of the detachment, together with 6 male and 7 female children belonging to the convicts.
The Fishbourn store-ship was of 378 tons; the Borrowdale of 272 tons; and the Golden Grove of 331 tons. On board this last ship was embarked the chaplain of the colony, with his wife and a servant.
Not only these as store-ships, but the men of war and transports, were stored in every part with provisions, implements of agriculture, camp equipage, clothing for the convicts, baggage, etc.
On board of the Sirius were taken, as supernumeraries, the major commandant of the corps of marines embarked in the transports*, the adjutant and quarter-master, the judge-advocate of the settlement, and the commissary; with 1 sergeant, 3 drummers, 7 privates, 4 women, and a few artificers.
[* This officer was also lieutenant-governor of the colony.]
Proper day and night signals were established by Captain Phillip for the regulation of his convoy, and every necessary instruction was given to the masters to guard against separation. On board the transports a certain number of prisoners were allowed to be upon deck at a time during the day, the whole being properly secured at night: and as the master of each ship carrying convicts had indented for their security in a penalty of forty pounds for every one that might escape, they were instructed constantly to consult with the commanding marine officer on board the transports, both as to the number of convicts that were to be suffered to come on deck during the passage, and the times when such indulgence should be granted. To the military was left the care of those essential services, the preservation of their health, the inspection of their provisions, and the distribution of the sentinels who were to guard them. Their allowance of provisions during the voyage (two-thirds of the usual allowance to a seaman in the navy) was contracted for in London*; and Mr. Zachariah Clark was sent out in one of the transports as the agent responsible for the due performance of the contract. This allowance was to be suspended on their arrival at any foreign port, the commissary of the settlement being then to furnish them with fresh provisions.
[* By William Richards jun. esquire, of Walworth in the county of Surry.]
At our outset we had the mortification to find that two of our convoy were very heavy sailers, and likely to be the occasion of much delay in so long a voyage as that in which we had embarked. The Charlotte was on the first and second day taken in tow by the Hyaena, and the Lady Penrhyn fell considerably astern. As the separation of any of the fleet was a circumstance to be most sedulously guarded against and prevented, the Sirius occasionally shortened sail to afford the sternmost ships time to come up with her; at the close of evening she was put under an easy sail for the night, during which time she carried, for the guidance of the whole, a conspicuous light in the main-top.
On the 15th the signal was made for the transports to pass in succession within hail under the stern of the Sirius, when, on inquiry, it appeared, that the provost-marshal of the settlement (who was to have taken his passage on board the Prince of Wales) was left behind, together with the third mate of the Charlotte transport, and five men from the Fishbourn store-ship; the loss of these five persons was supplied by as many seamen from on board the Hyaena.
Light or unfavourable winds prevented our getting clear of the Channel until the 16th, at which time we had the satisfaction of finding that we had accomplished it without returning, or putting in at any of the ports which offered themselves in our way down.
Sunday the 20th was marked by the discovery of a design formed among the convicts on board the Scarborough transport to mutiny and take possession of the ship. The information was given by one of the convicts to the commanding marine officer on board, who, on the lying-to of the convoy at noon to dispatch Captain De Courcy to England, waited on the major-commandant on board the Sirius, and communicated the particulars to him and Captain Phillip, who, after some deliberation, directed that the ringleaders (two in number) should be brought on board the Sirius, there punished, and afterwards secured in the Prince of Wales transport. This was accordingly put in execution, and two dozen lashes were inflicted by the boatswain's mate of the Sirius on each of the offenders, who stedfastly denied the existence of any such design as was imputed to them.
A boat from each of the transports coming on board the Sirius with letters for England, some additional signals were given to the masters, with directions to those who had convicts on board to release from their irons such as might by their behaviour have merited that indulgence; but with orders to confine them again with additional security on the least appearance among them of irregularity.
These necessary regulations being adjusted, and the Hyaena sent off with the commanding officer's letters, the fleet made sail again in the evening. But it should have been observed, that when the Hyaena's boat came on board she brought some necessaries for the five men belonging to her, who had been lent to the Fishbourn store-ship, and who, animated with a spirit of enterprise, chose rather to remain in her than return in the frigate to England.
The wind was more favourable to the Hyaena's return to Plymouth (which port she was directed to make) than to our progress southward, for the two following days; but it then coming round to the NW, by the 24th we had reached the latitude of Cape Ortegal.
On the 25th, the signal was made for Lieutenant Shortland, the agent on board the Alexander, who, at his coming on board, was directed to visit the several transports, and collect from each a list of the different trades and occupations of the respective convicts, agreeably to a form given him for that purpose by Captain Phillip. From this time to the 29th the wind continued favourable, but blowing exceedingly fresh, and attended with a heavy rolling sea. The Supply was now directed to make sail and keep six miles ahead during the day, and two during the night; and to look out for the land, as it was expected that the fleet would on the morrow be in the neighbourhood of the Madeira Isles. Accordingly, soon after day-break the following morning, she made the signal for seeing land, and at noon we were abreast of the Deserters--certain high barren rocks so named, to the SSE of the Island of Madeira, and distant about three leagues.
In the afternoon of the 31st, the Supply ahead again made the signal for seeing land; and shortly after we were abreast of the ridge of rocks situated between the Madeira and Canary Isles, called the Salvages.
June.] Our strong trade-wind appeared to have here spent its force, and we were baffled (as frequently happens in the vicinity of islands) by light airs or calms. With these and contrary winds our patience was exercised until the evening of the 2nd of June, when a favourable breeze sprang up, which continued during that night. At six the next morning the island of Teneriffe was seen right ahead; and about seven in the evening the whole fleet came to an anchor in the road of Santa Cruz. The ships were immediately moored, taking the precaution of buoying their cables with empty casks, to prevent their being injured by rocks or foul ground, an inconvenience which had frequently been experienced by navigators in this road. We found riding here a Spanish packet, an English brig bound to London, and some smaller vessels.
Captain Phillip designed to have sent an officer forward in the Supply, to announce his arrival to the governor, and to settle as well the hour of his waiting upon him, as some necessary arrangements respecting fresh provisions, water, etc.; but as it was growing dark before the fleet anchored, and night coming on, when business of that nature could not well be transacted, his visit was postponed until the morning. Before we came to an anchor the port-officer, or harbour-master, came on board to make the customary inquiries, accompanied by some Spanish officers and gentlemen of the town. The ceremony of a salute was on their side declined, having, as was alleged, but two or three guns mounted for use; and on our part this omission was readily acquiesced in, as expediting the service which brought us thither, that of watering the ships, and taking on board wine and such other refreshments as could be procured; an object of more consequence than the scrupulous observance of compliment and etiquette, particularly in the then necessarily crowded state of the Sirius. And as it was afterwards understood, that it was not usual at this place to return an equal number of guns upon those occasions (a circumstance always insisted on by his Majesty's ships when they salute), all unpleasant discussion of this point was thereby avoided.
Early in the morning the officer was dispatched on shore by Captain Phillip to learn at what time he might pay his respects to the governor. The hour of noon was appointed for that ceremony; and accordingly at that time Captain Phillip, accompanied by the civil, military, and naval officers under his orders, waited on his excellency the Marquis De Branceforte, and were received by him with the utmost politeness.
The same reasons which induced Captain Phillip to acquiesce in omitting to salute on his arrival at this port, operated against his taking public notice of his Majesty's birthday, which he would otherwise have made a point of celebrating with every mark of respect.
In the afternoon of this day the marquis sent an officer on board the Sirius, politely offering Captain Phillip whatever assistance he might stand in need of, and that was in his power to furnish. In the forenoon of Wednesday the 6th, he came in person on board, attended by several of his officers, to return Captain Phillip's visit; and afterwards entertained him, the lieutenant-governor, and other officers of the settlement, navy, and marines, to the number of ten, at dinner.
The next being the day of Corpus Christi, a day of great religious observance and ceremony in Roman Catholic countries, no boats were sent from the transports to the shore. The business of watering, getting off wine, etc. was suspended by Captain Phillip's directions until the morrow, to prevent the least interruption being given by any of the people under his command to the ceremonies and processions which were to take place. Those officers, whose curiosity led them to observe the religious proceedings of the day, very prudently attended uncovered, and knelt, wherever kneeling was required, in the streets, and in their churches; for, when it was considered that the same great Creator of the universe was worshipped alike by Protestant and Catholic, what difficulty could the mind have in divesting their pageant of its tinsel, its trappings, and its censers, and joining with sincerity in offering the purest incense, that of a grateful heart?
The Marquis De Branceforte, whom we found in the government of the Canary Isles, was, we were informed, a major-general in the Spanish service, and having been three years in the government, only waited, it was said, for his promotion to the rank of lieutenant-general to return to Spain. The salary annexed to this government, as we understood, was not quite equal to fifteen hundred pounds a year. His Excellency's house was situated at the upper end of the High Street, or Square, as it was called, and was by no means the best in the town. Mr. Carter (the treasurer) and some private merchants appearing to reside in larger and much better habitations. The houses in most of the streets were built with quadrangles, a gallery running round the interior sides of the first floor, on which indeed the families chiefly resided, appropriating the ground floor to offices for domestic purposes. The dwelling-rooms were not ceiled, but were open to the roof of the building, which rarely exceeded two stories in height. The upper part of the windows was glazed with very bad glass; the lower part consisted of close lattice-work, through the small apertures of which, as we traversed the streets, we had now and then opportunities of noticing the features of the women, whom the custom of the country had confined within doors to the lattice, and in the street to the roba zilia, or veil. There were but few objects in the town sufficiently striking to draw the attention of a stranger.
The landing-place was commodious, being formed by a stone pier, alongside of which two boats at a time might lie with great ease and take in their fresh water. It appeared by an inscription in Spanish, that the pier, having fallen nearly into a state of entire ruin, was indebted for its present convenience to the liberality of the governor assisted indeed by some merchants, who superintended and contributed largely to its repair, which was completed in the year 1786.
At the lower end of the High Street was observed a light and well-finished monument of white marble, commemorating the marvellous appearance of the image or bust of Our Lady at Candelaria, to the Guanches, the aborigines of the country, who were thereby converted to Christianity 104 years before the preaching of the gospel. The four sides of the monument bore long inscriptions to this effect, and further intimated, that it was erected, as an act of piety and cordial devotion, at the expense of Don Bartholomi di Montagnes, perpetual captain of the Royal Marine Castle at Candelaria.
In the centre of this street were a stone basin and fountain, from which the inhabitants were supplied with a stream of very good water, conveyed from the neighbouring hills by wooden troughs supported on slight posts, and reaching quite to the town. At the head of the street, near the government-house, stood a large stone cross, and at a small distance the church of St Francis, annexed to which was a monastery of Franciscans. The name of Santa Cruz, the Holy Cross, seemed not inapplicable to this town, for one or more crucifixes of wood or stone were to be found in most of the streets, and in others the form of the Cross was painted upon the walls of the houses. Over the entrances of some houses we observed, inclosed in small glass-cases, the images and pictures of favourite saints, with lamps before them, which were lighted in the evenings and on certain public occasions.
There were not any fortifications upon the commanding ground above the town; but at each end of the bay stood a fort, between which were erected three or four circular redoubts, connected with each other by a low parapet wall, wearing the appearance of a line of communication between the forts; but very few cannon were to be seen in the works.
On the skirts of the town to the southward we visited a workhouse, which had been originally designed for the reception of the mendicants with which the town had been very much infested. About forty families had subscribed a certain sum to erect this building, and to furnish in a manner every way convenient and consistent with such a design. But we were informed that the governor had filled it with the daughters of the labouring poor, who were here instructed in weaving and spinning, and were brought up in industry and cleanliness, remaining in the house until of a marriageable age, when a portion equal to ten pounds sterling was given with each on the day of her nuptials. This and the other expenses of the house were furnished by a fund produced from the labour of the young people, who appeared all in the same dress, plain indeed, but cleanly and neat.
We heard with surprise, and not without regret, that this institution was likely to fall to the ground whenever the governor's departure should take place, the subscribers being dissatisfied with the plan that was then pursued, alleging that their money had been given to get rid of their beggars, whose numbers were not diminished; and that the children were only taught what they could learn from their mothers at home. To us however, judging without prejudice or partiality, the design of the institution appeared to have been more effectually answered by striking at the root of beggary, than if the charity had been merely confined to objects who would have been found daily to multiply, from the comfortable provision held out to them by that charity.
A whole-length picture of the governor was hung up in the working-rooms of the house. He was represented, agreeably to the end that was at first proposed by the institution, conducting a miserable object to the gate of the workhouse; a front view of which was also given.
These islands, known to the Romans by the appellation of the Fortunate Islands, appeared even at this day to deserve that epithet; for the inhabitants were so fortunate, and the soil so happy, that no venomous creature had been found to live there; several toads, adders, and other poisonous reptiles, which had been brought thither for proof, having died almost immediately after their arrival. The air of this place is very salubrious; an instance of which was remarked in a gentleman who was said to be 113 years of age, and who had been happy enough to preserve his faculties through such a series of time, nearly entire, his memory alone appearing to be impaired. He came from Waterford in Ireland, and had been vice-consul at this port ever since the year 1709.
We were informed that a slight shock of an earthquake had been felt here in the month of February preceding, but was unattended with any eruption from the Peak, which had not alarmed the island since the year 1703, when it destroyed the port of Guarrachica.
When the weather was very hot at Santa Cruz, the better sort of the inhabitants chose cooler residences higher up in the mountains, and these they could establish in whatever degree of temperature they chose; for in proportion as they ascended the air became cooler, the famous Peak being (though a volcano) clad in perpetual snow at its summit. We understood that the rain fell very heavy at certain seasons; and, on the sides of the hills which surrounded the town, ridges or low walls of stone were constructed at short distances, with intervals in them, to break the force of the water, which otherwise, descending in torrents, would sweep away every thing before it. Around Santa Cruz, indeed, there appeared but little vegetation for which to be apprehensive, nor did the prospect brighten till we came within view of the town named Laguna, an inland settlement, and once the capital of the island.
For this place a party of us set forward on the 8th, mounted, according to the custom of the country, upon mules or asses. Our route lay over hills and mountains of rock continually ascending, until within a short distance of the town, at which we arrived in between two and three hours from our leaving Santa Cruz. The road over which we passed was wide, but for the greatest part of it we travelled over loose stones that bore all the appearance of cinders; in some places resembling a regular pavement, and in others our beasts were compelled to scramble as well as they could over the hard solid rock. We found that Laguna, which was somewhat better than three English miles distant from Santa Cruz, had formerly been a populous city; the streets were spacious, and laid out at right angles with each other.
Here were two monasteries and as many convents. The monastery of St Augustine we visited; and the good fathers of it with great civility conducted us to their chapel, though it was preparing for the celebration of some religious ceremony. We found the altar-piece, on which was commonly displayed all their finery and taste, neat, light, and elegant. Few paintings were to be seen; the best were half-lengths of some of the saints disposed round the pulpit. The form of this building was a quadrangle, the centre of which was laid out in garden-ground, elegantly divided into walks, bordered with roses, myrtle, and a variety of other shrubs and flowers. Hence we proceeded to the retreat of religious females, but had not chosen the proper time for paying our respects, which ceremony we therefore deferred until our return in the evening from an excursion into the adjacent country.
The town of Laguna (a name which signifies Lake or Swamp) is situated upon a plain surrounded by high hills, and watered by the same means as Santa Cruz, from a great distance up the country. We noticed, indeed, two stone-basins, and fountains playing in different streets of the place. The buildings here had a manifest superiority over those of Santa Cruz, the streets were far more spacious, and the houses larger. In some of the former we perceived a regular line of shops filled chiefly with articles from England. The insalubrity of the air of this place, however, had driven, and was continuing to drive, such numbers almost daily from its influence, that it had more the appearance of a deserted than of an inhabited town, weeds and grass literally growing in the streets. As this town decreased in its population, Santa Cruz, with some others on the island, received the benefit; and it must be acknowledged, that although in quitting Laguna they removed from fertile fields and a romantic pleasant country, to uncouth and almost barren rocks at Santa Cruz, they changed a noxious for a very healthy situation.
After viewing the town we remounted our beasts, and proceeded by the side of the aqueduct into a most delightful country, where we found the people cheerfully employed in gathering their harvest, and singing their rural roundelays. The soil produced oats, barley, wheat, and Indian corn; but, though it bore always two, and sometimes three crops, it was nevertheless unequal in the whole of its produce to the consumption of the island, the deficiency being supplied from the Grand Canary.
The sides of the hills were clothed with woods, into one of which we rode, and arriving at a place named Il Plano de los Vieios, or the Plain of the Old People, we rested for some little time, and afterward, crossing through a cultivated valley, ascended the hill on the opposite side, where we visited the source of the stream that supplied the aqueduct. Returning thence, we refreshed under the walls of a small chapel, where a friar occasionally performed mass for the neighbouring country people. About five o'clock we again entered Laguna, with the intention of paying our compliments to the sisterhood of the convent which we had visited in the morning; but whether our party was too numerous, or from what other cause it proceeded we could not learn, we were only favoured with the company of four or five of the elder ladies of the house, who talked very loud and very fast. After purchasing some few bunches of artificial fruit, we took our leave, and proceeded to Santa Cruz, cautiously indeed, down the hills and rocks which we had ascended in the morning, and arrived about sun-set.
An outward-bound Dutch East-Indiaman had anchored in the road since the morning.
In the evening of this day John Powers, a convict, made his escape from the Alexander transport, in a small boat which by some accident was suffered to lie unattended to alongside the ship, with a pair of oars in it; he was however retaken at day-break the next morning, by the activity of the master and a party of marines belonging to the transport, and brought on board the Sirius, whence he was removed to his own ship, with directions for his being heavily ironed.
It appeared that he had at first conceived hopes of being received on board the Dutch East India ship that arrived in the morning; but, meeting with a disappointment there, rowed to the southern part of the island, and concealed himself among the rocks, having first set his boat and oars adrift, which fortunately led to a discovery of the place he had chosen for his retreat. The Marquis de Branceforte, on hearing of his escape, expressed the greatest readiness to assist in his recovery; and Captain Phillip offered a considerable reward for the same purpose.
Having completed the provisioning and watering of the fleet, and being again ready to proceed on our voyage, in the afternoon of Saturday the 9th the signal was made from the Sirius for all boats to repair on board; shortly after which she unmoored, and that night lay at single anchor.
At daybreak the following morning the whole fleet got under way.
Proceed on the voyage
Altitude of the peak of Teneriffe
Pass the isles of Sal, Bonavista, May, and St. Iago
Cross the equator
Progress
Arrive at the Brazils
Transactions at Rio de Janeiro
Some particulars of that town
Sail thence
Passage to the Cape of Good Hope
Transactions there
Some particulars respecting the Cape
Depart for New South Wales
Light airs had, by the noon of Monday the 11th, carried the fleet midway between the islands of Teneriffe and the Grand Canary, which latter was now very distinctly seen. This island wore the same mountainous appearance as its opposite neighbour Teneriffe, from which it seemed to be divided by a space of about eleven leagues. Being the capital of the Canary Islands, the chief bishop had his residence there, and evinced in his diocese the true spirit of a primitive Christianity, by devoting to pious and charitable purposes the principal part of a revenue of ten thousand pounds per annum. The chief officers of justice also reside in this island, before whom all civil causes are removed from Teneriffe and the other Canary Islands, to be finally decided.
While detained in this spot, we had a very fine view of the Peak of Teneriffe, lifting its venerable and majestic head above the neighbouring hills, many of which were also of considerable height, and perhaps rather diminished the grandeur of the Peak itself, the altitude of which we understood was 15,396 feet, only 148 yards short of three miles.
On the 14th, the wind began to blow steady from the north-east; and on the 15th, about eleven in the forenoon, we crossed the tropic of Cancer. Our weather now became hot and close, and we rolled along through a very heavy sea, the convoy, however, keeping well together.
At six o'clock in the morning of the 18th, the Supply, then ahead of the fleet, made the signal for seeing land. The weather being very hazy, we had but an indistinct view of the Isle of Sal, one of the Cape de Verd islands, bearing NW by W ¼ W distant eight leagues; and at one the same day, we came in sight of the Island of Bonavista, bearing S.W. distant two leagues.
Captain Phillip designing to anchor for a few hours at the Island of St. Iago, to procure water and other refreshments, if he could get in without any risk or difficulty, in the evening shortened sail, and made the convoy's signal to close, the run from thence to that island being too great to admit of our reaching it before dark. The Supply was directed at the same time to keep ahead with a light during the night; and at twelve o'clock the night signal was made for the fleet to bring-to.
At six the next morning we made sail again, and soon after passed the Isle of May, distant about four leagues, bearing NW by W of us. Between nine and ten o'clock we made the south end of the Island of St. Iago and at the distance of about two leagues. The wind freshening soon after we saw the island, at noon we were ranging along the south side of it, with the signal flying for the convoy to prepare to anchor; but at the moment of our opening Praya-bay, and preparing to haul round the southern extremity of it, the fleet was suddenly taken aback, and immediately after baffled by light airs. We could however perceive, as well by the colours at the fort, as by those of a Portuguese snow riding in the bay, that the wind blew directly in upon the shore, which would have rendered our riding there extremely hazardous; and as it was probable that our coming to an anchor might not have been effected without some accident happening to the convoy, Captain Phillip determined to wave, for the superior consideration of the safety of the fleet under his care, the advantages he might otherwise have derived from the supply of fresh provisions and vegetables to be procured there: the breeze therefore coming off the land, and with sufficient effect to carry us clear of the island and its variable weather, the anchoring signal was taken in, and we made sail about two o'clock, the fleet standing away due south. Our sudden departure from the island, we imagined, must have proved some disappointment to the inhabitants, as we noticed that a gun was fired at the fort, shortly after our opening the bay; a signal, it was supposed, to the country people to bring down their articles for trade and barter.
July.] On the 14th of July the fleet crossed the equator in the 26th degree of east longitude. Such persons as had never before crossed the Line were compelled to undergo the ridiculous ceremonies which those who were privileged were allowed to perform on them.
From this time our weather was pleasant, and we had every appearance of soon reaching our next port, the Rio de Janeiro, on the Brazil coast.
The track which we had to follow was too beaten to afford us any thing new or interesting. Captain Phillip proposed making the Island of Trinidada; but the easterly winds and southerly currents which we had met with to the northward of the Line having set us so far to the westward when we crossed it, he gave up all expectation of seeing it, and on the 28th altered his course, steering SW. Trinidada is laid down in 20 degrees 25 minutes south latitude, and 28 degrees 35 minutes west longitude, while we at noon on the 29th were in 19 degrees 36 minutes south latitude, and 33 degrees 18 minutes west longitude.
The longitude, when calculated by either altitudes of the sun, for the time-piece (of Kendal's constructing, which was sent out by the Board of Longitude), or by the means of several sets of lunar observations, which were taken by Captain Hunter, Lieutenant Bradley, and Lieutenant Dawes, was constantly shown to the convoy, for which purpose the signal was made for the whole to pass under the stern of the Sirius, when a board was set up in some conspicuous part of the ship with the longitude marked on it to that day at noon.
A good look-out (to make use of the sea-phrase usual on these occasions) was kept for an island, not very well known or described, which was laid down in some charts, nearly in the track which we were to cross, but it was not seen by any of the ships of the fleet; nor was implicit credit given to its existence, although named (the island of Ascension) and a latitude and longitude assigned to it. It was conjectured, that the islands of Martin Vas and Trinidada, lying within about five leagues of each other, had given rise to the idea of a new island, and that Ascension was in reality one or other of those islands.
Only two accidents happened during the passage to the Brazils. A seaman belonging to the Alexander was so unfortunate as to fall overboard, and could not be recovered--and a female convict on board the Prince of Wales was so much bruised by the falling of a boat from off the booms (which, owing to the violent motion of the ship, had got loose) that she died the following day, notwithstanding the professional skill and humane attention of the principal surgeon; for as the boat in launching forward fell upon the neck and crushed the vertebrae and spine, all the aid he could render her was of no avail.
August.] On Thursday the 2nd of August we had the coast of South America in sight; and the head-land, named Cape Frio, was distinctly seen before the evening closed in. Our time-piece had given us notice when to look out for it, and the land was made precisely to the hour in which it had taught us to expect it. It was not, however, until the evening of the 4th that we anchored within the islands at the entrance of the harbour of Rio de Janeiro.
At day-break the next morning an officer was dispatched from the Sirius to inform the viceroy of the arrival of the fleet; and he most readily and politely promised us every assistance in his power. A ship bound to Lisbon passing us about noon, that opportunity was taken of sending an account to England of the fortunate progress which we had so far made in the long voyage before us; soon after which the port-officer, or harbour-master, came on board, and, the seabreeze beginning to blow, the fleet got under sail. About five in the afternoon we crossed the bar, and soon after passing the fort of Santa Cruz, saluted it with thirteen guns, which were returned by an equal number of guns from the fort. While saluting, it fell calm; but by the assistance of a light breeze which afterwards sprung up, and the tide of flood, the Sirius was enabled to reach far enough in by seven o'clock to come to an anchor in the harbour of Rio de Janeiro; the convoy also anchored as they came up, at the distance of about a mile and a half from the landing-place, which was found very commodious.
Our passage from Teneriffe, although rather a long one, had fortunately been unattended with any disease, and the surgeon reported that we had brought in only ninety-five persons sick, comprehending every description of people in the fleet. Many, however, of this number were bending only under the pressure of age and its attendant infirmities, having no other complaints among them.
On the morning after our arrival the intendant of the port, with the usual officers, repaired on board the Sirius, requiring the customary certificates to be given, as to what nation she belonged to, whither bound, the name of her commander, and his reason for coming into that port; to all which satisfactory answers were given; and at eleven o'clock the day following Captain Phillip, accompanied by the officers of the settlement, civil and military, waited upon Don Louis Vasconcellos, the viceroy of the Brazils, at his excellency's palace, who received them with much politeness, readily assenting to a tent being pitched on shore for the purpose of an observatory; as well as to the drawing of the Seine in different parts of the bay for fish; only pointing out the restrictions that would be necessary to prevent the sailors from straggling into the country. On their taking leave, it was most politely intimated, that no restraint would be imposed upon the officers, whenever they came on shore to the town, in which they were free to pass wherever they desired. A conduct so opposite to that in general observed to foreigners in this port could by us be attributed only to the great esteem in which Captain Phillip was held here by all ranks of people during the time of his commanding a ship in the Portuguese service; for on being informed of the employment he now held, the viceroy's guard was directed to pay him the same honours during his stay here, that were paid to himself as the representative of the crown of Portugal.
The palace of the viceroy stood in the Royal Square, of which, together with the public prison, the mint, and the opera-house, it formed the right wing. Of these buildings the opera-house alone was shut up; and we were informed, that the gloom which was thrown over the court and kingdom of Portugal by the death of the late king, had extended in full force to the colonies also; all private and public amusements being since that time discouraged as much as possible, the viceroy himself setting the example. Once a week, indeed, his excellency had a music-meeting at the palace for the entertainment of himself and a few select friends; but nothing more.
The town of St. Sebastian (or, as it is more commonly named, the town of Rio de Janeiro, which was in fact the name of the river forming the bay, on the western side of which was built the town) is large, and was originally designed to have had an elevated and airy situation, but was, unfortunately for the inhabitants, erected on low ground along the shore, and in a recess almost wholly out of the reach of the refreshing seabreeze, which was observed to be pretty regular in its visitations. The inhabitants, nevertheless, deemed the air salubrious; and we were informed that epidemic distempers were rare among them. In their streets, however, were frequently seen objects of wretchedness and misery, crawling about with most painful and disgusting swellings in their legs and privities. The hospital, which had formerly been a Jesuit's convent, stood near the summit of the hill, in an open situation, at the back of the town. From the great estimation in which English surgeons were held here, it would seem that the town is not too well provided in that respect. Senor Ildefonse, the principal in the place had studied in England, where he went under the course of surgical education called walking the hospitals, and might by his practice in this place, which was considerable, and quite as much as he could attend to, have soon realised a handsome fortune; but we understood, that to the poor or necessitous sick he always administered gratis.
The township of the Rio de Janeiro was said to contain on the whole not less than 40,000 people, exclusive of the native Indians and negroes. These last appear to be very numerous, of a strong robust appearance, and are brought from the coast of Guinea, forming an extensive article of commerce. With these people of both sexes the streets were constantly filled, scarcely any other description of people being seen in them. Ladies or gentlemen were never seen on foot in the streets during the day; those whose business or inclination led them out being carried in close chairs, the pole of which came from the head of the vehicle, and rested on the shoulders of the chairmen, having, notwithstanding the gaudiness of the chair itself, a very awkward appearance.
The language spoken here by the white people was that of the mother country--Portuguese. The ecclesiastics in general could converse in Latin; and the negro slaves spoke a corrupt mixture of their own tongue with that of the people of the town. The native Indians retained their own language, and could be distinctly discerned from the natives of Guinea, as well by the colour of the skin, as by the hair and the features of the face. Some few of the military conversed in French; but this language was in general little used.
The town appeared to be well supplied with water, which was conveyed into it from a great distance by means of an aqueduct (or carioca) which in one place having to cross a road or public way was raised upon a double row of strong lofty arches, forming an object that from the bay, and at the entrance of the harbour, added considerably to the beauty of the imagery. From this aqueduct the water was received into stone fountains, constructed with capacious basins, whither the inhabitants sent their linen, to have the dirt rather beaten than washed out of it, by slaves. One of these fountains of a modern construction was finished with great taste and neatness of execution.
We also observed several large and rich convents in the town. The chief of these were, the Benedictine and the Carmelite; one dedicated to St. Anthony, another to Our Lady of Assistance, and another to St. Theresa. The two last were for the reception of nuns; and of the two, that of St. Theresa was reported the severest in its religious duties, and the strictest in its restraints and regulations. The convent D. Ajuda, or of Assistance, received as pensioners, or boarders, the widows of officers, and young ladies having lost their parents, who were allowed to remain, conforming to the rules of the convent, until married, or otherwise provided for by their friends. There were many inferior convents and churches, and the whole were under the spiritual direction of a bishop, whose palace was in the town, a short distance from one of the principal convents.
Near the carioca, or aqueduct, stood the seminary of St. Joseph, where the servants of the church received their education, adopting on their entrance the clerical habit and tonsure. The chapel to the seminary was neat, and we were conducted by a sensible well-informed father of the Benedictine Order to a small library belonging to it.
To a stranger nothing could appear more remarkable than the innumerable religious processions which were to be seen at all hours in this town. At the close of every day an image of the Virgin was borne in procession through the principal streets, the attendants arrayed in white surplices, and bearing in their hands lighted tapers; chanting at the same time praises to her in Latin. To this, as well as to all other religious processions, the guards turned out, grounded their arms, kneeled, and showed the most submissive marks of respect; and the bells of each church or convent in the vicinity of their progress sounded a peal while they were passing.
Every church, chapel, or convent, being under the auspices of some tutelary saint, particular days were set apart as the festival of each, which were opened with public prayers, and concluded with processions, music, and fireworks. The church and altars of the particular saint whose protection was to be solicited were decorated with all the splendor of superstition*, and illuminated both within and without. During several hours after dark, on these solemn festivals, the inhabitants might be seen walking to and from the church, dressed in their best habiliments, accompanied by their children, and attended by their slaves and their carriages.
[* We were informed that they never permitted any base metals near their altars, all their vessels, etc. being of the purest gold or silver.]
An instance was related to us, of the delay that was thrown in the way of labour by this extravagant parade of public worship, and the strict observance of saints' days, which, though calculated, no doubt, by the glare which surrounds the shrine, and decorates the vesture of its priests, to impress and keep in awe the minds of the lower sort of people, Indians and slaves, had nevertheless been found to be not without its evil effects:
A ship from Lisbon, laden chiefly with bale goods, was burnt to the water's edge, with her whole cargo, and much private property, the fourth day after her anchoring in the harbour, owing to the intervention of a sabbath and two saints' days which unfortunately ensued that of her arrival. All that could be done was, to tow the vessel on shore near the Island of Cobres, clear of the shipping in the bay, where grounding, she was totally consumed. One of the passengers, whose whole property was destroyed with her, came out to fill an high judicial employment, and had with all his family removed from Lisbon for that purpose, bringing with him whatever he had valuable in Europe.
At a corner of almost every street in the town we observed a small altar, dedicated generally to the Virgin, and decorated with curtains and lamps. Before these altars, at the close of every evening, the negroes assembled to chant their vespers, kneeling together in long rows in the street. The policy of thus keeping the minds of so large a body, as that of the black people in this town, not only in constant employment, but in awe and subjection, by the almost perpetual exercise of religious worship, was too obvious to need a comment. In a colony where the servants were more numerous than the masters, a military, however excellent, ought not to be the only control; to keep the mind in subjection must be as necessary as to provide a check on the personal conduct.
The trades-people of the town have adopted a regulation, which must prove of infinite convenience to strangers, as well as to the inhabitants. We found the people of one profession or trade dwelling together in one, two, or as many streets as were necessary for their numbers to occupy. Thus, for instance, the apothecaries resided in the principal street, or Rua Direita, as it was named; one or more streets were assigned to the jewellers; and a whole district appeared to be occupied by the mercers. By this regulation the labour of traversing from one street to another, in search of any article which the purchaser might wish to have a choice of, was avoided*. Most of the articles were from Europe, and were sold at a high price.
[* The same useful regulation is observed at Aleppo.]
Houses here were built, after the fashion of the mother-country, with a small wooden balcony over the entrance; but to the eye of one accustomed to the cheerful appearance of glass windows, a certain sombre cast seemed to pervade even their best and widest streets, the light being conveyed through window-frames of close lattice-work. Some of these, indeed, being decorated on the outside with paint and some gilding, rather improved the look of the houses to which they belonged.
The winter, we were informed, was the only season in which the inhabitants could make excursions into the country; for when the sun came to the southward of the Line, the rain, as they most energetically assured us, descended for between two and three months rather in seas than in torrents. At this season they confined themselves to their houses in the town, only venturing out by the unscorching light of the moon, or at those intervals when the rains were moderated into showers. But, though the summer season is so extremely hot, the use of the cold bath, we found, was wholly unknown to the inhabitants.
The women of the town of Rio de Janeiro, being born within the tropics, could not be expected to possess the best complexions; but their features were in general expressive--the eye dark and lively, with a striking eye-brow. The hair was dark, and nature had favoured them with that ornament in uncommon profusion: this they mostly wore with powder, strained to a high point before, and tied in several folds behind. By their parents they were early bred up to much useful knowledge, and were generally mistresses of the polite accomplishments of music, singing, and dancing. Their conversation appeared to be lively, at times breaking out in sallies of mirth and wit, and at others displaying judgment and good sense. In their dress for making or receiving visits, they chiefly affected silks and gay colours; but in the mornings, when employed in the necessary duties of the house, a thin but elegant robe or mantle thrown over the shoulders was the only upper garment worn. Both males and females were early taught to dress as men and women; and we had many opportunities of seeing a hoop on a little Donna of three years of age, and a bag and a sword on a Senor of six. This appearance was as difficult to reconcile as that of the saints and virgins in their churches being decorated with powdered perukes, swords, laced clothes, and full-dressed suits.
Attentions to the women were perhaps carried farther in this place than is customary in Europe. To a lady, in the presence of a gentleman, a servant never was suffered to hand even a glass of water, the gentleman (with a respect approaching to adoration) performing that office; and these gallantries appeared to be received as the homage due to their superior rank in the creation. It was said, indeed, that they were not disinclined to intrigues, but in public the strictest decorum and propriety of behaviour was always observed in the women, single as well as married. At houses where several people of both sexes were met together, the eye, on entering the room, was instantly hurt, at perceiving the female part of the company ranged and seated by themselves on one side, and the gentlemen on the other, an arrangement certainly unfavourable to private or particular conversation. These daughters of the sun should, however, neither be censured nor wondered at, if found indulging in pleasures against which even the constitutions of colder regions are not proof. If frozen chastity be not always found among the children of ice and snow, can she be looked for among the inhabitants of climates where frost was never felt? Yet heartily should she be welcomed wherever she may be found, and doubly prized if met with unexpectedly.
The mines, the great source of revenue to the crown of Portugal, and in the government of this place the great cause of jealousy both of strangers and of the inhabitants, were situated more than a week's journey hence, except some which had been lately discovered in the mountains near the town. Sufficient employment was found for the Mint, at which was struck all the coin that was current here, besides what was sent to Europe. The diamond-trade had been for some time taken into the hands and under the inspection of Government; but the jewellers' shops abounded with topazes, chrysolites, and other curious and precious stones.
Beside the forts at the entrance of the harbour, there were two others of considerable force, one at either extremity of the place, constructed on islands in the bay. On an eminence behind the town, and commanding the bay, stood the Citadel. The troops in these works were relieved regularly on the last day of every month, previous to which all the military in the garrison passed in review before the viceroy in the quadrangle of the palace. About 250 men with officers in proportion were on duty every day in the town, distributed into different guards, from which sentinels were stationed in various parts of the place, who, to keep themselves alert, challenge and reply to each other every quarter of an hour. In addition to these sentinels, every regiment and every guard sent parties through the streets, patrolling the whole night for the preservation of peace and good order.
An officer from each regiment attended every evening at the palace to take orders for the following day, which were delivered by the adjutant of orders, who himself received them directly from the viceroy. At the palace every transaction in the town was known, and thence, through the adjutant of orders, the inhabitants received the viceroy's commands and directions whenever he thought it necessary to guide or regulate their conduct.
The regiments that came here from Lisbon had been twenty years in the country, although, on leaving Europe, they were promised to return at the expiration of the third. They were recruited in the Brazils; and such officers as might wish to visit Portugal obtained leave of absence on application to the court, through the viceroy. To each regiment is attached an officer, who is styled an Auditor, and whose office is to inquire into all crimes committed by the soldiers of his regiment. If he sees it necessary, he has power to inflict corporal punishment, or otherwise, as the offender may in his judgment merit; but his authority does not extend either to life or limb. For exercising his employment he is allowed the pay of a captain of infantry.
The barracks for the troops appeared to be commodious, and to be kept in good order. A small number of cavalry were always on duty, employed in the antichamber of the palace, or in attending the viceroy either on days of parade, or in his excursions into the country. A captain's guard of infantry with a standard mounted every day at the palace.
During our stay in this port all the transports struck their yards and top-masts, and overhauled their rigging preparatory to our passage to the Cape of Good Hope. An observatory was erected on the Island of Enchados, where Lieutenant Dawes, with two young gentlemen from the Sirius as assistants, went on shore, taking with them the instruments requisite for ascertaining the exact rate of going of the time-piece; and for making other necessary observations. Sailmakers were also sent to the island; and some of the camp-equipage of the settlement was landed to be inspected and thoroughly aired, with proper guards for its security.
Some propensities to the practice of their old vices manifesting themselves among the convicts* soon after their arrival in this port had given them an opportunity, the governor, with the lieutenant-governor, visited the transports, and informed the prisoners, both male and female, that in future any misbehaviour on their part should be attended with severe punishment, while on the other hand propriety of conduct should be particularly distinguished and rewarded with proportionate indulgence.
[* Counterfeit coin was offered by some of them to a boat which came alongside one of the transports.]
On the 21st, being the birthday of the prince of Brazil, the Sirius, in compliment to the court of Portugal, displayed a Portuguese flag at her fore-top-masthead, and, on the saluting of the fort on the Island of Cobres, saluted also with twenty-one guns. At ten o'clock the same morning, Captain Phillip, with the principal officers of the settlement and garrison. went on shore to pay their compliments to the viceroy in honour of the day, who on this and similar occasions had a court, at which all the civil and military officers and principal inhabitants of the town attended to pay their respects to his excellency as the representative of the sovereign, who received them standing under a canopy in the presence-chamber of the palace.
September.] Preparations were now making for putting to sea; and on Saturday the 1st of September, having appointed to sail on the Monday following, the governor, lieutenant-governor, and other officers, waited upon and took leave of the viceroy, who expressed himself in the handsomest terms at their departure.
During their stay in this port of refreshment, the convicts were each served daily with a pound of rice and a pound and an half of fresh meat (beef), together with a suitable proportion of vegetables. Great numbers of oranges were at different times distributed among them, and every possible care was taken to refresh and put them into a state of health and condition to resist the attacks of the scurvy, should it make its appearance in the long passage over the ocean which was yet between them and New South Wales. The Reverend Mr. Johnson gave also his full share of attention to their welfare, performing divine service on board two of the transports every Sunday of their stay in port.
We were unluckily not in season for any other of the fruits of this country than oranges and bananas; but these were truly delicious, and amply compensated, both in quantity and quality, for the want of others. Some few guavas, and a pine-apple or two, were purchased; but we were informed that their flavour then, and when in perfection, was not to be compared. Vegetables (which were brought from the opposite shore) were in great plenty. The beef was small and lean, and sold at about two-pence halfpenny per pound: mutton was in proportion still smaller, and poultry dear, but not ill-tasted. The marketplace was contiguous to the palace.
On the evening of Sunday the 2nd of September, a Portuguese boat, just at the close of the day, after once or twice rowing round the Sirius, dropped a soldier of the island on board, who, it appeared from his own account, had been for five or six days absent from his duty, and dreading perhaps to return, or perhaps wishing to change his situation, requested that he might be received on board, and permitted to sail to New Holland with Captain Phillip; who, however, not choosing to comply with his request, caused him to be immediately conveyed on shore in one of the ship's boats; but with great humanity permitted him to be landed wherever he thought he might chance to escape unobserved, and have an opportunity of returning to his duty.
An officer was this day sent to signify Captain Phillip's intention of saluting the forts when he took his departure, which would be the following morning, and presuming that an equal number of guns would be fired in return. The viceroy answered, that no mark of attention or respect should on his part be omitted that might testify his esteem for Captain Phillip, and the high sense he entertained of the decorum observed by those under his command during their stay in that port.
The land-wind not blowing on Monday morning, all idea of sailing was given up for that day. In the afternoon the signal was made for unmooring, and for all boats to cease communication with the shore.
At day-break the following morning the harbour-master came on board the Sirius, and, a light land breeze favouring her departure, took charge of that ship over the bar; the Supply and convoy getting under sail, and following her out of the bay. When the Sirius arrived nearly abreast of the fort of Santa Cruz, it was saluted with twenty-one guns; a marked compliment paid by the viceroy to Captain Phillip, who immediately returned it with the like number of guns. Shortly after this the harbour-master left the ship, taking with him Mr. Morton, the master of the Sirius, who from ill health was obliged to return to England in the Diana, a whaler, which was lying here on our arrival. By this gentleman were sent the public and private letters of the fleet.
The land-breeze carrying us clear of the islands in the offing, the Supply was sent to speak a ship that was perceived at some little distance ahead, and which proved to be a ship from Oporto. By her we learned that the viceroy was superseded in his government, and it was imagined that his successor was standing into the harbour in a royal yacht which we then saw under the land. Toward evening it fell calm, and the islands and high land were still in sight. The calm continued during the greatest part of the following day; but toward evening a light and favourable breeze sprung up, which enabled us to cross the tropic of Capricorn, and bend our course toward the Cape of Good Hope.
On the night of Friday the 7th we had heavy squalls of rain, thunder, and lightning. From that time until the 1lth the wind was rather unfavourable; but shifting to the northward on that day, it blew during the two following in strong gales, with squalls of heavy rain, attended with much sea.
These strong gales having, on Friday the 14th, terminated in a calm, Lieutenant Shortland, the day following, reported to the commanding officer, that there were eleven soldiers sick on board the Alexander and five or six convicts on board the Charlotte. The calm continued until the 16th, when a favourable breeze sprung up; but those ships of the fleet which could sail were prevented from making the most of the fair wind, by the Lady Penrhyn transport and others, which were inattentive, and did not make sail in proper time.
On the 19th the wind was fresh, and frequently blew in squalls, attended with rain. In one of these squalls the Charlotte suddenly hove-to, a convict having fallen overboard; the man, however, was drowned. Our weather was at this time extremely cold; and the wind, which had for some days been unfavourable, shifting on the 22nd, we again looked towards the Cape. At one o'clock the next morning it came on to blow very hard, accompanied with a great sea; we had nevertheless the satisfaction to observe that the convoy appeared to get on very well, though some of them rolled prodigiously. This gale continued with very little variation until the morning of the 28th, when it moderated for a few hours, and shifted round to the SE. It now again blew in fresh gales, attended with much rain and sea. But a calm succeeding all this violence shortly after, on Sunday morning the 30th the weather was sufficiently clear to admit of some altitudes being taken for the time-keeper, when our longitude was found to be 3 degrees 04 minutes.
October.] Thence to the 4th of October both wind and weather were very uncertain, the wind sometimes blowing in light airs, very little differing from a calm, with clear skies; at others, in fresh breezes, with rain. On the 4th, Captain Phillip was informed that thirty of the convicts on board of the Charlotte were 111; some of them, as it was feared, dangerously. To render this information still more unpleasant, the wind was foul during the two succeeding days.
In the forenoon of Saturday the 6th, four seamen of the Alexander transport were sent on board the Sirius, under a charge of having entered into a conspiracy to release some of the prisoners while the ship should be at the Cape of Good Hope, and of having provided those people with instruments for breaking into the fore-hold of the ship (which had been done, and some provisions stolen thereout). The four seamen were ordered to remain in the Sirius, a like number of her people being sent in lieu of them on board the transport.
On Thursday the 11th, by an altitude of the sun taken that morning, the fleet was found to be in the longitude of 15 degrees 35 minutes E at which time there was an unfavourable change of the wind, and the sick on board the Charlotte were not decreasing in number.
On the next day, as it was judged from the information given by the time-keeper that we were drawing nigh the land, the Supply was sent forward to make it; but it was not seen until the following morning.
At noon on the 13th the Supply was sent to instruct the sternmost ships of the convoy in what direction they should keep to enter the bay; and about four in the afternoon, the harbour-master getting on board the Sirius, that ship was brought safely to an anchor in Table Bay, the convoy doing the same before dark; having crossed over from one Continent to the other, a distance of upwards of eleven hundred leagues, in the short space of five weeks and four days, fortunately without separation, or any accident having happened to the fleet.
Immediately on our anchoring, an officer from the Sirius was sent on shore to the governor, who politely promised us every assistance in his power; and at sun-rise the next morning the Sirius saluted the garrison with thirteen guns, which were returned by an equal number from the fort.
From the great uncertainty of always getting readily on shore from the bay, and the refreshments found at the Cape of Good Hope being so necessary after, and so well adapted to the fatigues and disorders consequent on a long voyage, we found it a custom with most strangers on their arrival to take up their abode in the town, with some one or other of the inhabitants, who would for two rix-dollars (eight shillings of English money) or a ducatoon (six shillings English) per week, provide very good lodgings, and a table amply furnished with the best meats, vegetables, and fruits which could be procured at the Cape. This custom was, as far as the nature of our service would admit, complied with by several officers from the ships; and, on the second day after our arrival, Captain Phillip, with the principal officers of the navy and settlement, proceeded to the government-house in the Company's garden, where they were introduced to Mr. Van de Graaf (the governor, for the Dutch East India Company, of this place and its dependencies) and by him politely received.
With a requisition made by Captain Phillip of a certain quantity of flour and corn, the governor expressed his apprehensions of being unable to comply, as the Cape had been very lately visited by that worst of scourges--a famine, which had been most severely felt by every family in the town, his own not excepted. This was a calamity which the settlement had never before experienced, and was to be ascribed rather to bad management of, than any failure in, the late crops. Measures were however taking to guard, as much as human precaution could guard, against such a misfortune in future; and magazines were erecting for the reception of grain on the public account, which had never been found necessary until fatal experience had suggested them. Captain Phillip's request was to be laid before the Council, without whose concurrence in such a business the governor could not act, and an answer was promised with all convenient dispatch. This answer, however, did not arrive until the 23rd, when Captain Phillip was informed that every article which he had demanded was ordered to be furnished.
November.] In the meantime the ships of the fleet had struck their yards and topmasts (a precaution always necessary here to guard against the violence of the south-east wind, which had been often known to drive ships out of the bay) and began filling their water. On board of the Sirius and some of the transports, the carpenters were employed in fitting up stalls for the reception of the cattle that was to be taken hence as stock for the intended colony at New South Wales. These were not ready until the 8th of the next month, November, on which day, 1 bull, 1 bull-calf, 7 cows, 1 stallion, 3 mares, and 3 colts, together with as great a number of rams, ewes, goats, boars, and breeding sows, as room could be provided for, were embarked in the different ships, the bulls and cows on board the Sirius, the horses on board the Lady Penrhyn; the remainder were put into the Fishbourn store-ship and Friendship transport.
Shortly after our arrival in the bay, a soldier belonging to the Swiss regiment of Muron, quartered here, swam off from his post and came on board one of the transports, requesting to be permitted to proceed in her to New South Wales; but, as an agreement had been mutually entered into between the Dutch and English commanders, that deserters in the service of, or subjects of either nation, should be given up, Captain Phillip sent him on shore, previously obtaining a promise of his pardon from the regiment.
On the 9th the watering of the fleet being completed, corn and hay for the stock, and flour, wine, and spirits for the settlement, being all on board, preparations were made for putting to sea, and on the 10th the signal was made to unmoor.
The convicts while in this port had been served, men and women, with one pound and an half of soft bread each per diem; a pound of fresh beef, or mutton, and three quarters of a pound for each child, together with a liberal allowance of vegetables.
While in this harbour, as at Rio de Janeiro, Mr. Johnson, the chaplain, preached on board two of the transports every Sunday; and we had the satisfaction to see the prisoners all wear the appearance of perfect health on their being about to quit this port, the last whereat any refreshment was to be expected before their arrival in New South Wales.
As it was earnestly wished to introduce the fruits of the Cape into the new settlement, Captain Phillip was ably assisted in his endeavours to procure the rarest and the best of every species, both in plant and seed, by Mr. Mason, the king's botanist, whom we were so fortunate as to meet with here, as well as by Colonel Gordon, the commander in chief of the troops at this place; a gentleman whose thirst for natural knowledge amply qualified him to be of service to us, not only in procuring a great variety of the best seeds and plants, but in pointing out the culture, the soil, and the proper time of introducing them into the ground.
The following plants and seeds were procured here and at Rio de Janeiro:
AT RIO DE JANEIRO Coffee--both seed and plant Cocoa-in the nut Cotton-seed Banana-plant Oranges--various sorts, seed and plant Lemon--seed and plant Guava--seed Tamarind Prickly pear-plant, with the cochineal on it Eugenia, or Pomme Rose--a plant bearing a fruit in shape like an apple, and having the flavour and odour of a rose Ipecacuana--three sorts Jalap AT THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE The Fig-tree Bamboo Spanish Reed Sugar Cane Vines of various sorts Quince Apple Pear Strawberry Oak Myrtle To these must be added all sorts of grain, as Rice, Wheat, Barley, Indian corn, etc. for seed, which were purchased to supply whatever might be found damaged of these articles that were taken on board in England.
During our stay here, the Ranger packet, Captain Buchanan, arrived after a passage of twelve weeks from Falmouth, bound to Bengal. She sailed again immediately. One officer alone of our fleet was fortunate enough to receive letters by her from his connexions in England.
At the time of our arrival the inhabitants of this agreeable town had scarcely recovered from the consternation into which they had been thrown by one of the black people called Malays, with whom the place abounded; and who, taking offence at the governor for not returning him to Batavia (where, it seemed, he was of consequence among his own countrymen, and whence he had been sent to the Cape as a punishment for some offence), worked himself up to frenzy by the effect of opium, and, arming himself with variety of weapons, rushed forth in the dusk of the evening, killing or maiming indiscriminately all who were so unfortunate as to be in his route, women alone excepted. He stabbed the sentinel at the gate of the Company's gardens, and placed himself at his post, waiting some time in expectation of the governor's appearance, who narrowly escaped the fate intended for him, by its falling on another person accidentally passing that way. On being pursued, he fled with incredible swiftness to the Table Mountain at the back of the town, whence this single miscreant, still animated by the effect of the opium, for two days resisted and defied every force that was sent against him. The alarm and terror into which the town was thrown were inconceivable; for two days none ventured from within their houses, either masters or slaves; for an order was issued (as the most likely means of destroying him, should he appear in the town) that whatever Malay was seen in the streets should be instantly killed by the soldiery. On the evening of the second day, however, he was taken alive on the Table Mountain, having done much injury to those who took him, and was immediately consigned to the death he merited, being broken on the wheel, and his head and members severed after the execution, and distributed in different parts of the country.
Of this man, who had killed fourteen of the inhabitants, and desperately wounded nearly double that number, it was remarked, that in his progress his fury fell only on men, women passing him unhurt; and it was as extraordinary as it was unfortunate, that among those whom his rage destroyed, were some of the most deserving and promising young men in the town. This, at Batavia, was called running a muck, or amocke, and frequently happened there, but was the first instance of the kind known at the Cape. Since that time, every Malay or other slave, having business in the street after a certain hour in the evening, is obliged to carry a lighted lantern, on pain of being stopped by the sentinel and kept in custody until morning. Murder and villany are strongly depicted on the features of the slaves of that nation; and such of them as dared to speak of this dreadful catastrophe clearly appeared to approve the behaviour of their countryman.
The government of the Cape we understood to be vested in a governor and council, together with a court of justice. The council is composed of the governor, the second or lieutenant-governor, the fiscal, the commanding officer of the troops for the time being, and four counsellors. With these all regulations for the management of the colony originate; and from them all orders and decrees are issued. The court of justice is composed of the fiscal, the second governor, a secretary, and twelve members, six of whom are from among the burghers, and six from among the bourgeoisie. The fiscal, who was the first magistrate, had hitherto been styled independent, that is to say, his decisions were not subject to the interference of the governor and council; but we were informed, that since the death of the late fiscal, M. Serrurier, it had been determined by the States, that the decrees of the fiscal should be subject to the revision of the council. Before this officer were tried all causes both civil and criminal. He had a set of people belonging to him who constantly patrolled the streets armed, to apprehend all vagrant and disorderly persons. Every fourteen days offences were tried. The prison was adjacent to and had communication with the court-house. The place where all sentences were executed stood to the left of the landing-place, a short distance above the fort or castle. The ground on which it stood was raised by several steps above the road. Within the walls were to be seen (and seen with horror) six crosses for breaking criminals, a large gibbet, a spiked pole for impalements, wheels, etc., etc. together with a slight wooden building, erected for the reception of the ministers of justice upon execution-days. Over the entrance was a figure of justice, with the usual emblems of a sword and balance, and the following apposite inscription: 'Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum.' The bodies of those broken on the wheel were exposed in different parts of the town, several instances of which, and some very recent ones, were still to be seen.
It had been always imagined, that the police of the Cape-town was so well regulated as to render it next to impossible for any man to escape, after whom the fiscal's people were in pursuit. This, however, did not appear to be the case; for very shortly after our arrival four seamen belonging to a ship of our fleet deserted from her; and although rewards were offered for apprehending them, and every effort made that was likely to insure success, two only were retaken before our departure.
Since the attempt meditated upon the Cape by the late Commodore Johnstone, the attention of the government appeared to have been directed to its internal defence. To this end additional works had been constructed on each side of the town, toward the hill called the Lion's Rump, and beyond the castle or garrison. But the defence in which they chiefly prided themselves, and of which we were fortunate enough to arrive in time to be spectators, consisted of two corps of cavalry and one of infantry, formed from the gentlemen and inhabltants of the town. We understood that these corps were called out annually to be exercised during seven days, and were reviewed on the last day of their exercise by the governor attended by his whole council. They appeared to be stout and able-bodied men, particularly those who composed the two corps of cavalry, and who were reputed to be excellent marksmen. Their horses, arms, and appointments were purchased at their own expense, and they were expected to hold them selves in readiness to assemble whenever their services might be required by the governor. For uniform, they wore a blue coat with white buttons, and buff waistcoat and breeches. Their parade was the Square or Market-place, where they were attended by music, and visited by all the beauty of the place, who animated them by their smiles from the balcony of the town-hall, and if the weather was favourable accompanied them to the exercising ground, where tents were pitched for their reception, and whence they beheld these patriotic Africans (for few of them knew Holland but by name) enuring themselves to the tolls of war, 'pro aris et focis'. We were however told, that at the least idea of an enemy coming on the coast, the women were immediately sent to a distance in the country.
The militia throughout the whole district of the Cape were assembled at this time of the year, exercised for a week, and reviewed by the governor or his deputy, commencing with the militia of the Capetown.
The present governor of the Cape, Mr. Van de Graaf, though a colonel of engineers in the service of the States, yet holds his commission as governor under the authority of the Dutch East India Company, to which body the settlement wholly belongs. Every ship or vessel wearing a pendant of the States, be her rate what it may, is on entering the harbour saluted by the fort, which salute she returns with an inferior number of guns. The governor, at the landing-place, with his officers and carriages, attends the coming on shore of her captain or senior officer, to receive his commands, and escort him to his lodgings in the town, treating him with every mark of respect in his power. Such an humiliation of the Company's principal servant and officers in a commercial community bore, it must be confessed, rather an extraordinary appearance; but such, as we were informed, was the distinction between the two services; and Mr. Van de Graaf was obliged to obtain his prince's permission before he could accept of the government of the Cape from the East India Company.
Residence at the Cape would be highly agreeable, were it not for the south-east wind. This during the summer season blows with such violence, and drives every where such clouds of sand before it, that the inhabitants at certain times dare not stir out of their houses. Torrents of dust and sand, we were told, had been frequently known to fall on board of ships in the road. This circumstance accounted for every thing we got here being gritty to the taste; sand mixing with their flour, their rice, their sugar, and with whatever was capable of receiving it, finding its way in at doors, windows, and wherever there was an entrance for it. From the great height of the Table Mountain*, whatever clouds are within its influence are attracted when the south-east wind prevails; and as it increases in violence, these clouds hang over the side of the mountain, and descend into the valley, sometimes rolling down very near the town. From the curling of the vapour over the mountain, the inhabitants predict the arrival of the south-easter, and say, 'The Table-cloth is spread;' but with all its violence, and the inconvenience of the dust and sand, it has a good effect, for the climate and air of the Cape Town (though wonderfully beneficial and refreshing to strangers after a long voyage) is not reckoned salubrious by the inhabitants, who, we understood, were at times visited by pains in the chest, sore throats, and putrid fevers; and the place would certainly be still more unhealthy were it not for this south-east wind, which burns as it blows, and while it sweeps disorder before it purifies the air.
[* 3353 Rhineland feet--a Rhineland foot being twelve inches and 5/12 English.]
The Cape is celebrated for producing in the highest perfection all the tropical and other fruits; but of the few that were in season during our stay we could not pronounce so favourably. The oranges and bananas in particular were not equal to those of Rio de Janeiro. The grape we could only taste from the bottle; that of Constantia, so much famed, has a very fine, rich, and pleasant flavour, and is an excellent cordial; but much of the wine that is sold under that name was never made of the grape of Constantia; for the vineyard is but small, and has credit for a much greater produce that it could possibly yield: this reminds us of those eminent masters in the art of painting, to whom more originals are ascribed than the labour of the longest life of man could produce.
Wines of their own growth formed a considerable article of traffic here; and the neatness, regularity, and extent of their wine-vaults, were extremely pleasing to the eye; but a stranger should not visit more than one of them in a day; for almost every cask has some peculiarity to recommend it, and its contents must be tasted.
We found the paper currency here very inconvenient, from its lightness; as more than one instance occurred among ourselves during our stay, of its being torn from our hands by the violence of the south-east wind, when we were about to make a payment in the street, or even at the door of a shop.
The meat of the Cape was excellent; the black cattle were large, very strong, and remarkable for the great space between their horns. It was not uncommon to see twelve, fourteen, or sixteen oxen yoked in pairs to a waggon, and galloping through the streets of the town, preceded by a Hottentot boy, who accompanied them on foot, conducting the foremost couple by a leathern thong, which caution they are compelled to observe by an order of government, some accidents having formerly happened from some of these large teams having been imprudently driven through the streets without any one to lead them; the lash of the charioteer (for the driver of such a team deserves a more honourable appellation than that of waggoner) had been sometimes heard, we were told, on board of ships in the bay.
The sheep are fat, well-flavoured, and remarkable for the weight and size of their tails. Wonders have been related of them by travellers; but travellers from this part of the world are privileged to exaggerate in their narrations, if they choose so to do; the truth however is, that their tails weigh from eight to sixteen pounds; some few perhaps may be heavier by a pound or two; but though the sheep itself will very well endure the voyage to Europe, yet its tall considerably decreases in size and weight during the passage.
Strangers coming into the bay are served with beef, mutton, etc. by the Company's butcher, who contracts to supply the Company, its officers and ships, with meat at a certain price, which is fixed at about three halfpence per pound, although he may have to purchase the cattle at three or four times that sum; but in return for this exaction, he has the sole permission of selling to strangers, and at a much higher price, though even in that instance his demand is not allowed to exceed a certain quota. Four-pence per pound was the price given for all the meat served to our ships after we came in.
During our stay here we made frequent visits to the Company's garden, pleasantly situated in the midst of the town. The ground on each side of the principal walk, which was from eight to nine hundred paces in length, was laid out in fruit and kitchen gardens, and at the upper end was a paddock where we saw three large ostriches, and a few antelopes. Behind this paddock was a menagerie, which contained nothing very curious--a vicious zebra, an eagle, a cassowary, a falcon, a crowned falcon, two of the birds called secretaries, a crane, a tiger, an hyaena, two wolves, a jackal, and a very large baboon, composed the entire catalogue of its inhabitants.
In the town are two churches, one for the Calvinists, and another for the followers of Luther. In the first of these was a handsome organ; four large plain columns supported the roof, and the walls were ornamented with escutcheons and armorial quarterings. The body of the church was filled with chairs for the women, the men sitting in pews round the sides. By the pulpit stood an hour-glass, which, we were told, regulated the duration of the minister's admonition to his congregation. In the churchyards the gravestones, instead of bearing the names of the deceased, were all numbered, and the names were registered in a book kept for the purpose.
Weddings were always solemnized on a Sunday at one or other of these churches, and the parties were habited in sables, a dress surely more congenial with the sensations felt on the last than on the first day of such an union.
To the care of an officer belonging to a regiment in India, who was returning to Europe in a Danish vessel, Captain Phillip committed his dispatches; and by this ship every officer gladly embraced the last opportunity of communicating with their friends and connections, until they should be enabled to renew their correspondence from the new world to which they were now bound.
Nothing remaining to be done that need detain the convoy longer in this port, every article having been procured that could tend to the present refreshment of the colonists, or to the future advantage of the colony, the Sirius was unmoored in the evening of Sunday the llth, Captain Phillip purposing to put to sea the following morning; but the wind at that time not being favourable, the boats from the Sirius were once more sent on shore for a load of water, in order than no vessel which could be filled with an article so essential to the preservation of the flock might be taken to sea empty.
The south-east wind now beginning to blow, the signal was made for weighing, and at ten minutes before two in the afternoon of Monday the 12th of November the whole fleet was under sail standing out with a fresh of wind to the northward of Robin Island.
It was natural to indulge at this moment a melancholy reflection which obtruded itself upon the mind. The land behind us was the abode of a civilized people; that before us was the residence of savages. When, if ever, we might again enjoy the commerce of the world, was doubtful and uncertain. The refreshments and the pleasures of which we had so liberally partaken at the Cape, were to be exchanged for coarse fare and hard labour at New South Wales. All communication with families and friends now cut off, we were leaving the world behind us, to enter on a state unknown; and, as if it had been necessary to imprint this idea more strongly on our minds, and to render the sensation still more poignant, at the close of the evening we spoke a ship from London*. The metropolis of our native country, its pleasures, its wealth, and its consequence, thus accidentally presented to the mind, failed not to afford a most striking contrast with the object now principally in our view.
[* The Kent--southern whaler.]
Before we quitted the Cape Captain Hunter determined the longitude of the Cape-town in Table-bay to be, by the mean of several sets of lunar observations taken on board the Sirius, 18 degrees 23 minutes 55 seconds east from Greenwich.
Proceed on the voyage
Captain Phillip sails onward in the Supply, taking with him three of the transports
Pass the island of St. Paul
Weather, January 1788
The South Cape of New Holland made
The Sirius and her convoy anchor in the harbour of Botany Bay.
Every precaution being absolutely necessary to guard against a failure of water on board the different ships, the whole were put upon an allowance of three pints per man per diem soon after our departure from the Cape. This regulation was highly proper, as from the probable continuance of the easterly wind which then blew, the fleet might be detained a considerable time at sea.
For several days after we had sailed, the wind was unfavourable, and blowing fresh, with much sea, some time elapsed before we had reached to the eastward of the Cape of Good Hope. On the 16th, Captain Phillip signified his intention of proceeding forward in the Supply, with the view of arriving in New South Wales so long before the principal part of the fleet, as to be able to fix on a clear and proper place for the settlement. Lieutenant Shortland was at the same time informed, that he was to quit the fleet with the Alexander, taking on with him the Scarborough and Friendship transports. These three ships had on board the greater part of the male convicts, whom Captain Phillip had sanguine hopes of employing to much advantage, before the Sirius, with that part of the fleet which was to remain under Captain Hunter's direction, should arrive upon the coast. This separation, the first that had occurred, did not take place until the 25th, on which day Captain Phillip went on board the Supply, taking with him, from the Sirius, Lieutenants King and Dawes, with the time-keeper. On the same day Major Ross, with the adjutant and quarter-master of the detachment, went into the Scarborough, in order to co-operate with Captain Phillip in his intention of preparing, as far as time might allow, for the reception of the rest of the convoy.
The Supply and the three transports having taken their departure, Captain Hunter drew his little convoy into the order of sailing prescribed for them; and the boats, which had been employed passing and repassing between the Sirius and the transports, being hoisted in, about noon the fleet made sail to the south-east, having a fresh breeze at west-north-west.
December.] On Sunday the 16th of December, by computation, we were abreast of the Island of St. Paul, passing it at the distance of about sixty leagues.
The following day, on the return of a boat from the Fishbourn store-ship which had been sent to inquire into the state of the stock, we heard that several of the sheep were dead, as well as eight of the hogs belonging to the public stock.
Christmas day found us in the latitude of 42 degrees 10 minutes south, and steering, as we had done for a considerable time, an east-south-east course. We complied, as far as was in our power, with the good old English custom, and partook of a better dinner this day than usual; but the weather was too rough to admit of much social enjoyment.
With the wind at south-west, west-south-west, and south and by west, the weather was clear and cold, while to the northward of east or west it generally blew in strong gales.
We now often noticed pieces of sea-weed floating by the ships; and on the 28th the sun just appeared in time to show us we were in the latitude of 42 degrees 58 minutes south.
On the 29th, being in latitude 43 degrees 35 minutes south, the course was altered to east and by south half south, in order to run down our easting without going any further to the southward. The run at noon on this day was found to be the greatest we had made in any twenty-four hours since our departure from England, having 182 miles on the log-board since twelve o'clock the preceding day.
By lunar observations taken on the 30th the longitude was found to be 118 degrees 19 minutes east.
1788.]
January.] The new year opened with a gale of wind from the northward, which continued with much violence all the day, moderating towards evening.
The evening of the third proved fine and moderate, and the sun setting clear gave a good observation for the amplitude, when the variation was found to be 1 degree 00 minutes east. At noon the fleet was in the latitude of 44 degrees 00 minutes south, and longitude by lunar observation 135 degrees 32 minutes east, of which the convoy was informed.
At noon on the 4th preparations were made on board the Sirius for falling in with the land; her cables were bent, signal-guns prepared, and every possible precautions taken to ensure the safety of the fleet.
About ten at night on the 5th, a very beautiful aurora australis was observed bearing about south-west of the fleet; and for some nights a luminous phenomenon had been seen resembling lights floating on the surface of the water.
By a lunar observation taken at ten o'clock of the forenoon of Monday the 7th, the fleet was then distant seventeen leagues from the South Cape of New Holland; and at five minutes past two in the afternoon the signal was made for seeing the land. The rocks named the Mewstone and Swilly were soon visible, and the fleet stood along shore with fair moderate weather and smooth water, the land of New Holland distant from three to five miles.
Nothing could more strongly prove the excellence and utility of lunar observations, than the accuracy with which we made the land in this long voyage from the Cape of Good Hope, there not being a league difference between our expectation of seeing it, and the real appearance of it.
A thick haze hanging over the land, few observations could be made of it. What we first saw was the South-west Cape of New Holland, between which and the South Cape the land appeared high and rocky, rising gradually from the shore, and wearing in many places a very barren aspect. In small cavities, on the summit of some of the high land, was the appearance of snow. Over the South Cape the land seemed covered with wood; the trees stood thick, and the bark of them appeared in general to have a whitish cast. The coast seemed very irregular, projecting into low points forming creeks and bays, some of which seemed to be deep; very little verdure was any where discernible; in many spots the ground looked arid and sterile. At night we perceived several fires lighted on the coast, at many of which, no doubt, were some of the native inhabitants, to whom it was probable our novel appearance must have afforded matter of curiosity and wonder.
In all the preceding passage we had been scarcely a day without seeing birds of different kinds; and we also met with many whales. The weather was in general very rough, and the sea high, but the wind favourable, blowing mostly from north-west to south-west.
The convoy behaved well, paying more attention and obedience to signals than ships in the merchant service are commonly known to do. The ships, however, began to grow foul, not one of them being coppered, and we now anxiously wished for a termination of the voyage, particularly as the hay provided for the horses was on the point of being wholly expended.
The fair wind which had accompanied us to New Holland suddenly left us, shifting round to north-east and by east; we were obliged to lay our heads off-shore, in order to weather Swilly and the Eddystone (a perpendicular rock about a league to the eastward of Swilly) and the next day we had the mortification of a foul wind, a thing to which we had been long unaccustomed.
In the night of the 9th the Golden Grove shipped a sea, which stove in all her cabin windows: it was nearly calm at the time, with a confused heavy swell*.
[* This circumstance has since occurred to other ships nearly in the same situation.]
At two o'clock in the afternoon of the following day a very heavy and sudden squall took the Sirius and laid her considerably down on her starboard side: it blew very fresh, and was felt more or less by all the transports, some of which suffered in their sails.
Our progress along the coast to the northward was very slow, and it was not until the 19th that we fell in with the land, when we were nearly abreast of the Point named by Captain Cook Red Point. Before evening, however, we were gratified with the sight of the entrance into Botany Bay, but too late to attempt standing into it with the transports that night. The convoy therefore was informed by Captain Hunter how the entrance of the bay bore, and directed to be very attentive in the morning when the Sirius made sail or bore up.
When the morning came we found the fleet had been carried by a current to the southward as far as a clump of trees which had the preceding day obtained, from some resemblance in the appearance, the name of Post-down Clump; but with the assistance of a fine breeze we soon regained what we had lost in the night; and at ten minutes before eight in the morning the Sirius came to an anchor in Botany Bay. The transports were all safe in by nine o'clock.
Arrival of the fleet at Botany Bay
The governor proceeds to Port Jackson, where it is determined to fix the settlement
Two French ships under M. de la Perouse arrive at Botany Bay
The Sirius and convoy arrive at Port Jackson
Transactions
Disembarkation
Commission and letters patent read
Extent of the territory of New South Wales
Behaviour of the convicts
The criminal court twice assembled
Account of the different courts
The Supply sent with some settlers to Norfolk Island
Transactions
Natives
Weather
When the Sirius anchored in the bay, Captain Hunter was informed that the Supply had preceded him in his arrival only two days; and that the agent Lieutenant Shortland, with his detachment from the fleet, had arrived but the day before the Sirius and her convoy.
Thus, under the blessing of God, was happily completed, in eight months and one week, a voyage which, before it was undertaken, the mind hardly dared venture to contemplate, and on which it was impossible to reflect without some apprehensions as to its termination. This fortunate completion of it, however, afforded even to ourselves as much matter of surprise as of general satisfaction; for in the above space of time we had sailed five thousand and twenty-one leagues; had touched at the American and African Continents; and had at last rested within a few days sail of the antipodes of our native country, without meeting any accident in a fleet of eleven sail, nine of which were merchantmen that had never before sailed in that distant and imperfectly explored ocean: and when it is considered, that there was on board a large body of convicts, many of whom were embarked in a very sickly state, we might be deemed peculiarly fortunate, that of the whole number of all descriptions of persons coming to form the new settlement, only thirty-two had died since their leaving England, among whom were to be included one or two deaths by accidents; although previous to our departure it was generally conjectured, that before we should have been a month at sea one of the transports would have been converted into an hospital ship. But it fortunately happened otherwise; the high health which was apparent in every countenance was to be attributed not only to the refreshments we met with at Rio de Janeiro and the Cape of Good Hope, but to the excellent quality of the provisions with which we were supplied by Mr. Richards junior, the contractor; and the spirits visible in every eye were to be ascribed to the general joy and satisfaction which immediately took place on finding ourselves arrived at that port which had been so much and so long the subject of our most serious reflections, the constant theme of our conversations.
The governor, we found, had employed the time he had been here in examining the bay, for the purpose of determining where he should establish the settlement; but as yet he had not seen any spot to which some strong objection did not apply. Indeed, very few places offered themselves to his choice, and not one sufficiently extensive for a thousand people to sit down on. The southern shore about Point Sutherland seemed to possess the soil best adapted for cultivation, but it was deficient in that grand essential fresh water, and was besides too confined for our numbers. There was indeed a small run of water there; but it appeared to be only a drain from a marsh, and by no means promised that ample or certain supply which was requisite for such a settlement as ours. The governor, therefore, speedily determined on examining the adjacent harbours of Port Jackson and Broken Bay, in one of which he thought it possible that a better situation for his young colony might be found. But as his search might possibly prove fruitless, and that the few days which it should occupy might not be altogether thrown away, he left the lieutenant-governor at Botany Bay, with instructions to clear the ground about Point Sutherland, and make preparations for disembarking the detachment of marines and the convicts on his return, should that place at last be deemed the most eligible spot. At the same time Lieutenant King, of the Sirius, was directed to examine such parts of the bay as, from want of time, the governor had not himself been able to visit.
The governor set off on Monday the 21st, accompanied by Captain Hunter, Captain Collins (the judge-advocate), a lieutenant, and the master of the Sirius, with a small party of marines for their protection, the whole being embarked in three open boats. The day was mild and serene, and there being but a gentle swell without the mouth of the harbour, the excursion promised to be a pleasant one. Their little fleet attracted the attention of several parties of the natives, as they proceeded along the coast, who all greeted them in the same words, and in the same tone of vociferation, shouting every where 'Warra, warra, warra' words which, by the gestures that accompanied them, could not be interpreted into invitations to land, or expressions of welcome. It must however be observed, that at Botany Bay the natives had hitherto conducted themselves sociably and peaceably toward all the parties of our officers and people with whom they had hitherto met, and by no means seemed to regard them as enemies or invaders of their country and tranquillity*.
[* How grateful to every feeling of humanity would it be could we conclude this narrative without being compelled to say, that these unoffending people had found reason to change both their opinions and their conduct!]
The coast, as the boats drew near Port Jackson, wore so unfavourable an appearance, that Captain Phillip's utmost expectation reached no farther than to find what Captain Cook, as he passed by, thought might be found, shelter for a boat. In this conjecture, however, he was most agreeably disappointed, by finding not only shelter for a boat, but a harbour capable of affording security to a much larger fleet than would probably ever seek for shelter or security in it. In one of the coves of this noble and capacious harbour, equal if not superior to any yet known in the world, it was determined to fix the settlement; and on the 23rd, having examined it as fully as the time would allow, the governor and his party left Port Jackson and its friendly and peaceful inhabitants (for such he everywhere found them), and returned to Botany Bay.
In the report, of the survey made by Lieutenant King, during the governor's absence, the latter found nothing to induce him to alter his resolution of fixing in Port Jackson: directions were therefore given, that the necessary supply of water and grass for the stock should be immediately sent off to the ships, and the next morning was appointed for their departure from Botany Bay.
Several trees had been cut down at Point Sutherland, a saw-pit had been dug, and other preparations made for disembarking, in case the governor had not succeeded as, to the great satisfaction of every one, it was found he had; for had he been compelled to remain in Botany Bay, the swampy ground every where around it threatened us with unhealthy situations; neither could the shipping have ridden in perfect security when the wind blew from the SE to which the bay lay much exposed, the sea at that time rolling in with a prodigious swell. A removal therefore to Port Jackson was highly applauded, and would have taken place the next morning, but at daylight we were surprised by the appearance of two strange sail in the offing. Of what nation they could be, engaged the general wonder for some time, which at last gave way to a conjecture that they might be the French ships under M. de la Perouse, then on a voyage round the world. This was soon strengthened by the view of a white pendant, similar in shape to that of a commodore in our service, and we had no longer a doubt remaining that they were the ships above mentioned. They were, however, prevented by a strong southerly current from getting into the bay until the 26th, when it was known that they were the Boussole and Astrolabe, French ships, which sailed, under the command of M. de la Perouse, from France in the year 1785, on a voyage of discovery. As Captain Hunter, with whom the governor had left the charge of bringing the Sirius and transports round to Port Jackson (whither he had preceded them in the Supply the day before), was working out when M. de la Perouse entered Botany Bay, the two commanders had barely time to exchange civilities; and it must naturally have created some surprise in M. de la Perouse to find our fleet abandoning the harbour at the very time he was preparing to anchor in it: indeed he afterwards said, that until he had looked round him in Botany Bay, he could not divine the cause of our quitting it, which he was so far from expecting, that having heard at Kamschatka of the intended settlement, he imagined he should have found a town built and a market established; but from what he had seen of the country since his arrival, he was convinced of the propriety and absolute necessity of the measure. M. de la Perouse sailed into the harbour by Captain Cook's chart of Botany Bay, which lay before him on the binnacle; and we had the pleasure of hearing him more than once pay a tribute to our great circumnavigator's memory, by acknowledging the accuracy of his nautical observations.
The governor, with a party of marines, and some artificers selected from among the seamen of the Sirius and the convicts, arrived in Port Jackson, and anchored off the mouth of the cove intended for the settlement on the evening of the 25th; and in the course of the following day sufficient ground was cleared for encamping the officer's guard and the convicts who had been landed in the morning. The spot chosen for this purpose was at the head of the cove, near the run of fresh water, which stole silently along through a very thick wood, the stillness of which had then, for the first time since the creation, been interrupted by the rude sound of the labourer's axe, and the downfall of its ancient inhabitants; a stillness and tranquillity which from that day were to give place to the voice of labour, the confusion of camps and towns, and 'the busy hum of its new possessors.' That these did not bring with them, 'Minds not to be changed by time or place,' was fervently to have been wished; and if it were possible, that on taking possession of Nature, as we had thus done, in her simplest, purest garb, we might not sully that purity by the introduction of vice, profaneness, and immorality. But this, though much to be wished, was little to be expected; the habits of youth are not easily laid aside, and the utmost we could hope in our present situation was to oppose the soft harmonising arts of peace and civilisation to the baneful influence of vice and immorality.
In the evening of this day the whole of the party that came round in the Supply were assembled at the point where they had first landed in the morning, and on which a flag-staff had been purposely erected and an union jack displayed, when the marines fired several vollies; between which the governor and the officers who accompanied him drank the healths of his Majesty and the Royal Family, and success to the new colony. The day, which had been uncommonly fine, concluded with the safe arrival of the Sirius and the convoy from Botany Bay--thus terminating the voyage with the same good fortune that had from its commencement been so conspicuously their friend and companion.
The disembarkation of the troops and convicts took place from the following day until the whole were landed. The confusion that ensued will not be wondered at, when it is considered that every man stepped from the boat literally into a wood. Parties of people were every where heard and seen variously employed; some in clearing ground for the different encampments; others in pitching tents, or bringing up such stores as were more immediately wanted; and the spot which had so lately been the abode of silence and tranquillity was now changed to that of noise, clamour, and confusion: but after a time order gradually prevailed every where. As the woods were opened and the ground cleared, the various encampments were extended, and all wore the appearance of regularity.
February.] A portable canvas house, brought over for the governor, was erected on the East side of the cove (which was named Sydney, in compliment to the principal secretary of state for the home department) where also a small body of convicts was put under tents. The detachment of marines was encamped at the head of the cove near the stream, and on the West side was placed the main body of the convicts. The women did not disembark until the 6th of February; when, every person belonging to the settlement being landed, the numbers amounted to 1030 persons. The tents for the sick were placed on the West side, and it was observed with concern that their numbers were fast increasing. The scurvy, that had not appeared during the passage, now broke out, which, aided by a dysentery, began to fill the hospital, and several died. In addition to the medicines that were administered, every species of esculent plants that could be found in the country were procured for them; wild celery, spinach, and parsley, fortunately grew in abundance about the settlement; those who were in health, as well as the sick, were very glad to introduce them into their messes, and found them a pleasant as well as wholesome addition to the ration of salt provisions.
The public stock, consisting of one bull, four cows, one bull-calf, one stallion, three mares, and three colts (one of which was a stone-colt) were landed on the East point of the cove, where they remained until they had cropped the little pasturage it afforded; and were then removed to a spot at the head of the adjoining cove, that was cleared for a small farm, intended to be placed under the direction of a person brought out by the governor.
Some ground having been prepared near his excellency's house on the East side, the plants from Rio-de-Janeiro and the Cape of Good Hope were safely brought on shore in a few days; and we soon had the satisfaction of seeing the grape, the fig, the orange, the pear, and the apple, the delicious fruits of the Old, taking root and establishing themselves in our New World.
As soon as the hurry and tumult necessarily attending the disembarkation had a little subsided, the governor caused his Majesty's commission, appointing him to be his captain-general and governor in chief in and over the territory of New South Wales and its dependencies, to be publicly read, together with the letters patent for establishing the courts of civil and criminal judicature in the territory, the extent of which, until this publication of it, was but little known even among ourselves. It was now found to extend from Cape York (the extremity of the coast to the northward) in the latitude of 20 degrees 37 minutes South, to the South Cape (the southern extremity of the coast) in the latitude of 43 degrees 39 minutes South; and inland to the westward as far as 135 degrees of East longitude, comprehending all the islands adjacent in the Pacific Ocean, within the latitudes of the above-mentioned capes.
By this definition of our boundaries it will be seen that we were confined along the coast of this continent to such parts of it solely as were navigated by Captain Cook, without infringing on what might be claimed by other nations from the right of discovery. Of that right, however, no other nation has chosen to avail itself. Whether the western coast is unpromising in its appearance, or whether the want of a return proportioned to the expense which the mother-country must sustain in supporting a settlement formed nearly at the farthest part of the globe, may have deterred them, is not known; but Great Britain alone has followed up the discoveries she had made in this country, by at once establishing in it a regular colony and civil government.
The ceremony of reading these public instruments having been performed by the judge-advocate, the governor, addressing himself to the convicts, assured them, among other things, that 'he should ever be ready to show approbation and encouragement to those who proved themselves worthy of them by good conduct and attention to orders; while on the other hand, such as were determined to act in opposition to propriety, and observe a contrary conduct, would inevitably meet with the punishment which they deserved.' He remarked how much it was their interest to forget the habits of vice and indolence in which too many of them had hitherto lived; and exhorted them to be honest among themselves, obedient to their overseers, and attentive to the several works in which they were about to be employed. At the conclusion of this address three volleys were fired by the troops, who thereupon returned to their parade, where the governor, attended by Captain Hunter and the principal officers of the settlement, passed along the front of the detachment, and received the honours due to a captain-general; after which he entertained all the officers and gentlemen of the settlement at dinner, under a large tent pitched for the purpose at the head of the marine encampment.
The convicts had been mustered early in the morning, when nine were reported to be absent. From the situation which we had unavoidably adopted, it was impossible to prevent these people from straggling. Fearless of the danger which must attend them, many had visited the French ships in Botany Bay, soliciting to be taken on board, and giving a great deal of trouble. It was soon found that they secreted at least one-third of their working tools, and that any sort of labour was with difficulty procured from them.
The want of proper overseers principally contributed to this. Those who were placed over them as such were people selected from among themselves, being recommended by their conduct during the voyage; few of these, however, chose to exert the authority that was requisite to keep the gangs at their labour, although assured of meeting with every necessary support. Petty thefts among themselves began soon to be complained of; the sailors from the transports, although repeatedly forbidden, and frequently punished, still persisted in bringing spirits on shore by night, and drunkenness was often the consequence.
To check these enormities, the court of criminal judicature was assembled on the 11th of February, when three prisoners were tried; one for an assault, of which being found guilty, he was sentenced to receive one hundred and fifty lashes; a second, for taking some biscuit from another convict, was sentenced to a week's confinement on bread and water, on a small rocky island near the entrance of the cove; and a third, for stealing a plank, was sentenced to receive fifty lashes, but, being recommended to the governor, was forgiven.
The mildness of these punishments seemed rather to have encouraged than deterred others from the commission of greater offences; for before the month was ended the criminal court was again assembled for the trial of four offenders, who had conceived and executed a plan for robbing the public store during the time of issuing the provisions. This crime, in its tendency big with evil to our little community, was rendered still more atrocious by being perpetrated at the very time when the difference of provisions, which had till then existed, was taken off, and the convict saw the same proportion of provision issued to himself that was served to the soldier and the officer, the article of spirits only excepted. Each male convict was that day put upon the following weekly ration of provisions, two-thirds of which was served to the female convicts, viz 7 pounds of biscuit; 1 pound of flour; 7 pounds of beef, or 4 pounds of pork; 3 pints of peas; and 6 ounces of butter.
It was fair to suppose that so liberal a ration would in itself have proved the security of the store, and have defended it from depredation; but we saw with concern, that there were among us some minds so habitually vicious that no consideration was of any weight with them, nor could they be induced to do right by any prospect of future benefit, or fear of certain and immediate punishment. The charge being fully proved, one man, James Barrett, suffered death: his confederates were pardoned, on condition of their being banished from the settlement. Another culprit was sentenced to receive three hundred lashes; but, not appearing so guilty as his companions, was pardoned by the governor, the power of pardoning being vested in him by his Majesty's commission.
His excellency, having caused one example to be made, extended lenity to some others who were tried the following day; and one convict, James Freeman, was pardoned on condition of his becoming the public executioner.
It appeared by the letters patent under the great seal of Great Britain, which were read after the governor's commission, that 'the appointment of the place to which offenders should be transported having been vested in the crown by an act of parliament, his Majesty, by two several orders in council, bearing date the 6th of December 1786, had declared, that certain offenders named in two lists annexed to the orders in council should be transported to the eastern coast of New Holland, named New South Wales, or some one or other of the islands adjacent:' and it being deemed necessary that a colony and civil government should be established in the place to which such felons should be transported, and that a court of criminal jurisdiction should also be established therein, with authority to proceed in a more summary way than is used within the realms of Great Britain, according to the known and established laws thereof, his Majesty, by the 27th Geo. 3. cap. 56. was enabled to authorise, by his commission under the great seal, 'the governor, or in his absence the lieutenant-governor of such place, to convene from time to time, as occasion may require, a court of criminal jurisdiction, which court is to be a court of record, and is to consist of the judge-advocate and such six officers of the sea and land service as the governor shall, by precept issued under his hand and seal, require to assemble for that purpose.' This court has power to inquire of, hear, determine, and punish all treasons, misprisions of treasons, murders, felonies, forgeries, perjuries, trespasses, and other crimes whatsoever that may be committed in the colony; the punishment for such offences to be inflicted according to the laws of England as nearly as may be, considering and allowing for the circumstances and situation of the settlement and its inhabitants. The charge against any offender is to be reduced into writing, and exhibited by the judge-advocate: witnesses are to be examined upon oath, as well for as against the prisoner; and the court is to adjudge whether he is guilty or not guilty by the opinion of the major part of the court. If guilty, and the offence is capital, they are to pronounce judgment of death, in like manner as if the prisoner had been convicted by the verdict of a jury in England, or of such corporal punishment as the court, or the major part of it, shall deem meet. And in cases not capital, they are to adjudge such corporal punishment as the majority of the court shall determine. But no offender is to suffer death, unless five members of the court shall concur in adjudging him to be guilty, until the proceedings shall have been transmitted to England, and the king's pleasure signified thereupon. The provost-marshal is to cause the judgment of the court to be executed according to the governor's warrant under his hand and seal.
The resemblance of this to the military courts may be easily traced in some particulars. The criminal court is assembled, not at stated times, but whenever occasion may require. It is composed of military officers (the judge-advocate excepted, whose situation is of a civil nature) who assemble as such in their military habits, with the insignia of duty, the sash and the sword. Their judgments are to be determined by the majority; and the examination of the witnesses is carried on by the members of the court, as well as by the judge-advocate. But in other respects it differs from the military courts. The judge-advocate is the judge or president of the court; he frames and exhibits the charge against the prisoner, has a vote in the court, and is sworn, like the members of it, well and truly to try and to make true deliverance between the king and the prisoner, and give a verdict according to the evidence.
When the state of the colony and the nature of its inhabitants are considered, it must be agreed, that the administration of public justice could not have been placed with so much propriety in any other hands. The outward form of the court, as well as the more essential part of it, are admirably calculated to meet the characters and disposition of the people who form the major part of the settlement. As long confinement would be attended with a loss of labour, and other evils, the court is assembled within a day or two after the apprehension of any prisoner whose crime is of such magnitude as to call for a criminal proceeding against him. He is brought before a court composed of a judge and six men of honour, who hear the evidence both for and against him, and determine whether the crime exhibited be or be not made out; and his punishment, if found guilty, is adjudged according to the laws of England, considering and allowing for the situation and circumstances of the settlement and its inhabitants; which punishment, however, after all, cannot be inflicted without the ratification of the governor under his hand and seal.
Beside this court for the trial of criminal offenders, there is a civil court, consisting of the judge-advocate and two inhabitants of the settlement, who are to be appointed by the governor; which court has full power to hear and determine in a summary way all pleas of lands, houses, debts, contracts, and all personal pleas whatsoever, with authority to summon the parties upon complaint being made, to examine the matter of such complaint by the oaths of witnesses, and to issue warrants of execution under the hand and seal of the judge-advocate. From this court, on either party, plaintiff or defendant, finding himself or themselves aggrieved by the judgment or decree, an appeal lies to the governor, and from him, where the debt or thing in demand shall exceed the value of three hundred pounds, to the king in council: but these appeals must be put in, if from the civil court, within eight days, and if from the governor or superior court, within fourteen days after pronouncing the said judgments.
To this court is likewise given authority to grant probates of wills and administration of the personal estates of intestates dying within the settlement. But as property must be acquired in the country before its rights can come into question, few occasions of assembling this court can occur for many years.
In addition to these courts for the trial of crimes, and the cognisance of civil suits, the governor, the lieutenant-governor, and the judge-advocate for the time being, are by his Majesty's letters patent constituted justices for the preservation of the peace of the settlement, with the same power that justices of the peace have in England within their respective jurisdictions. And the governor, being enabled by his Majesty's commission, soon after our arrival, caused Augustus Alt esq. (the surveyor-general of the territory) to be sworn a justice of the peace, for the purpose of sitting once a week, or oftener as occasion might require, with the judge-advocate, to examine all offences committed by the convicts, and determine on and punish such as were not of sufficient importance for trial by the criminal court.
There is also a vice-admiralty court for the trial of offences committed upon the high seas, of which the lieutenant-governor is constituted the judge, Mr. Andrew Miller the registrar, and Mr. Henry Brewer the marshall. The governor has, beside that of captain-general, a commission constituting him vice-admiral of the territory; and another vesting him with authority to hold* general courts-martial, and to confirm or set aside the sentence. The major-commandant of the detachment had the usual power of assembling regimental or battalion courts-martial for the trial of offences committed by the soldiers under his command.
[* Captain Collins, the judge-advocate of the settlement, had also a warrant from the Admiralty appointing him judge-advocate to the marine detachment.]
By this account of the different modes of administering and obtaining justice, which the legislature provided for this settlement, it is evident that great care had been taken on our setting out, to furnish us with a stable foundation whereon to erect our little colony, a foundation which was established in the punishment of vice, the security of property, and the preservation of peace and good order in our community.
The governor having also received instructions to establish a settlement at Norfolk Island, the Supply sailed for that place about the middle of the month of February, having on board Lieutenant King of the Sirius, named by Capt. Phillip superintendant and commandant of the settlement to be formed there. Lieutenant King took with him one surgeon (Mr. Jamieson, surgeon's mate of the Sirius), one petty officer (Mr. Cunningham, also of the Sirius), two private soldiers, two persons who pretended to some knowledge of flax-dressing, and nine male and six female convicts, mostly volunteers. This little party was to be landed with tents, clothing for the convicts, implements of husbandry, tools for dressing flax, etc. and provisions for six months; before the expiration of which time it was designed to send them a fresh supply.
Norfolk Island is situated in the latitude of 29 degrees south, and in longitude 168 degrees 10 minutes east of Greenwich, and was settled with a view to the cultivation of the flax plant, which at the time when the island was discovered by Captain Cook was found growing most luxuriantly where he landed; and from the specimens taken to England of the New Zealand flax (of which sort is that growing at Norfolk Island), it was hoped some advantages to the mother country might be derived from cultivating and manufacturing it.
Mr. King, previous to his departure for his little government, was sworn in as a justice of the peace, taking the oaths necessary on the occasion, by which he was enabled to punish such petty offences as might be committed among his people, capital crimes being reserved for the cognisance of the criminal court of judicature established here.
Our own preservation depending in a great measure upon the preservation of our stores and provisions, houses for their reception were immediately begun when sufficient ground was found to be cleared; and the persons who had the direction of these and other works carrying on, found it most to the advantage of the public service to employ the convicts in task work, allotting a certain quantity of ground to be cleared by a certain number of persons in a given time, and allowing them to employ what time they might gain, till called on again for public service, in bringing in materials and erecting huts for themselves. But for the most part they preferred passing in idleness the hours that might have been so profitably spent, straggling into the woods for vegetables, or visiting the French ships in Botany Bay. Of this latter circumstance we were informed by M. de Clonard, the captain of the Astrolabe, in an excursion he made from the ships, to bring round some dispatches from M. de la Perouse, which that officer requested might be forwarded to the French ambassador at the court of London by the first of our transports that might sail from hence for Europe. He informed us, that they were daily visited by the convicts, many of whom solicited to be received on board before their departure, promising (as an inducement) to be accompanied by a number of females. M. de Clonard at the same time assured us, that the general (as he was termed by his officers and people) had given their solicitations no kind of countenance, but had threatened to drive them away by force.
Among the buildings that were undertaken shortly after our arrival, must be mentioned an observatory, which was marked out on the western point of the cove, to receive the astronomical instruments which had been sent out by the Board of Longitude, for the purpose of observing the comet which was expected to be seen about the end of this year. The construction of this building was placed under the direction of Lieut. Dawes of the marines, who, having made this branch of science his particular study, was appointed by the Board of Longitude to make astronomical observations in this country.
The latitude of the observatory was 33 degrees 52 minutes 30 seconds S; the longitude, from Greenwich, 151 degrees 19 minutes 30 seconds E.
Governor Phillip, having been very much pressed for time when he first visited this harbour, had not thoroughly examined it. The completion of that necessary business was left to Captain Hunter, who, with the first lieutenant of the Sirius, early in the month of February, made an accurate survey of it. It was then found to be far more extensive to the westward than was at first imagined, and Captain Hunter described the country as wearing a much more favourable countenance toward the head or upper part, than it did immediately about the settlement. He saw several parties of the natives, and, treating them constantly with good humour, they always left him with friendly impressions.
It was natural to suppose that the curiosity of these people would be attracted by observing, that, instead of quitting, we were occupied in works that indicated an intention of remaining in their country; but during the first six weeks we received only one visit, two men strolling into the camp one evening, and remaining in it for about half an hour. They appeared to admire whatever they saw, and after receiving each a hatchet (of the use of which the eldest instantly and curiously showed his knowledge, by turning up his foot, and sharpening a piece of wood on the sole with the hatchet) took their leave, apparently well pleased with their reception. The fishing-boats also frequently reported their having been visited by many of these people when hauling the seine, at which labour they often assisted with cheerfulness, and in return were generally rewarded with part of the fish taken.
Every precaution was used to guard against a breach of this friendly and desirable intercourse, by strictly prohibiting every person from depriving them of their spears, fizgigs, gum, or other articles, which we soon perceived they were accustomed to leave under the rocks, or loose and scattered about upon the beaches. We had however great reason to believe that these precautions were first rendered fruitless by the ill conduct of a boat's crew belonging to one of the transports, who, we were told afterwards, attempted to land in one of the coves at the lower part of the harbour, but were prevented, and driven off with stones by the natives. A party of them, consisting of sixteen or eighteen persons, some time after landed on the island* where the people of the Sirius were preparing a garden, and with much artifice, watching their opportunity, carried off a shovel, a spade, and a pick-axe. On their being fired at and hit on the legs by one of the people with small shot, the pick-axe was dropped, but they carried off the other tools.
[* Since known by the name of Garden Island.]
To such circumstances as these must be attributed the termination of that good understanding which had hitherto subsisted between us and them, and which Governor Phillip laboured to improve whenever he had an opportunity. But it might have been foreseen that this would unavoidably happen: the convicts were every where straggling about, collecting animals and gum to sell to the people of the transports, who at the same time were procuring spears, shields, swords, fishing-lines, and other articles from the natives, to carry to Europe; the loss of which must have been attended with many inconveniences to the owners, as it was soon evident that they were the only means whereby they obtained or could procure their daily subsistence; and although some of these people had been punished for purchasing articles of the convicts, the practice was carried on secretly, and attended with all the bad effects which were to be expected from it. We also had the mortification to learn, that M. De la Perouse had been compelled to fire upon the natives at Botany Bay, where they frequently annoyed his people who were employed on shore. This circumstance materially affected us, as those who had rendered this violence necessary could not discriminate between us and them. We were however perfectly convinced that nothing short of the greatest necessity could have induced M. De la Perouse to take such a step, as we heard him declare, that it was among the particular instructions that he received from his sovereign, to endeavour by every possible means to acquire and cultivate the friendship of the natives of such places as he might discover or visit; and to avoid exercising any act of hostility upon them. In obedience to this humane command, there was no doubt but he forbore using force until forbearance would have been dangerous, and he had been taught a lesson at Maouna, one of the Isles des Navigateurs, that the tempers of savages were not to be trusted too far; for we were informed, that on the very day and hour of their departure from that island, the boats of the two ships, which were sent for a last load of water, were attacked by the natives with stones and clubs, and M. De l'Angle, the captain of the Astrolabe, with eleven officers and men, were put to death; those who were so fortunate as to get off in the small boats that attended on the watering launches (which were destroyed), escaped with many wounds and contusions, some of which were not healed at the time of their relating to us this unfortunate circumstance. It was conjectured, that some one of the seamen, unknown to the officers, must have occasioned this outrage, for which there was no other probable reason to assign, as the natives during the time the ships were at the island had lived with the officers and people on terms of the greatest harmony. And this was not the first misfortune that those ships had met with during their voyage; for on the north-west coast of America, they lost two boats with their crews, and several young men of family, in a surf.
Notwithstanding the pressure of the important business we had upon our hands after our landing, the discharge of our religious duties was never omitted, divine service being performed every Sunday that the weather would permit: at which time the detachment of marines paraded with their arms, the whole body of convicts attended, and were observed to conduct themselves in general with the respect and attention due to the occasion on which they were assembled.
It was soon observed with satisfaction, that several couples were announced for marriage; but on strictly scrutinizing into the motive, it was found in several instances to originate in an idea, that the married people would meet with various little comforts and privileges that were denied to those in a single state; and some, on not finding those expectations realised, repented, wished and actually applied to be restored to their former situations; so ignorant and thoughtless were they in general. It was however to be wished, that matrimonial connexions should be promoted among them; and none who applied were ever rejected, except when it was clearly understood that either of the parties had a wife or husband living at the time of their leaving England.
The weather during the latter end of January and the month of February was very close, with rain, at times very heavy, and attended with much thunder and lightning. In the night of the 6th February, six sheep, two lambs, and one pig, belonging chiefly to the lieutenant-governor, having been placed at the foot of a large tree, were destroyed by the lightning. But accidents of this kind were rather to be expected than wondered at, until the woods around us could be opened and cleared.
Broken Bay visited
M. de la Perouse sails
Transactions
The Supply returns
Lord Howe Island discovered
The ships for China sail
Some convicts wounded by the natives
Scurvy
New store-house
Necessary orders and appointments
Excursions into the country
New branch of the harbour into Port Jackson
Sheep
March.] Early in March the governor, accompanied by some officers from the settlement and the Sirius, went round by water to the next adjoining harbour to the northward of this port, which is laid down in the charts by the name of Broken Bay, from the broken appearance of the land by which it is formed. The intention of this visit was, not only to survey the harbour, if any were found to exist, but to examine whether there were within it any spots of ground capable of cultivation, and of maintaining a few families; but in eight days that he was absent, though he found an harbour equal in magnitude to Port Jackson, the governor saw no situation that could at all vie with that which he had chosen for the settlement at Sydney Cove, the land at Broken Bay being in general very high and in most parts rocky and barren. The weather proved very unfavourable to an excursion in a country where the residence for each night was to be provided by the travellers themselves; and some of the party returned with dysenteric complaints. The weather at Port Jackson had been equally adverse to labour, the governor finding at his return upwards of two hundred patients under the surgeon's care, in consequence of the heavy rains that had fallen. A building for the reception of the sick was now absolutely necessary, and one, eighty-four feet by twenty-three, was put in hand, to be divided into a dispensary, (all the hospital stores being at that time under tents,) a ward for the troops, and another for the convicts. It was to be built of wood, and the roof to be covered in with shingles, made from a species of fir that is found here. The heavy rains also pointed out the necessity of sheltering the detachment, and until barracks could be built, most of them covered their tents with thatch, or erected for themselves temporary clay huts. The barracks were begun early in March; but much difficulty was found in providing proper materials, the timber being in general shakey and rotten. They were to consist of four buildings, each building to be sixty-seven feet by twenty-two, and to contain one company. They were placed at a convenient distance asunder for the purpose of air and cleanliness, and with a space in the centre for a parade.
On or about Monday the 10th of March, the French ships sailed from Botany Bay, bound, as they said, to the northward, and carrying with them the most unfavourable ideas of this country and its native inhabitants; the officers having been heard to declare, that in their whole voyage they no where found so poor a country, nor such wretched miserable people. During their stay in Botany Bay, they set up the frames of two large boats which they brought out from Europe, to replace those they lost at Maouna, and on the north-west coast of America. We had, during their stay in this country, a very friendly and pleasant intercourse with their officers, among whom we observed men of abilities, whose observations, and exertions in the search after knowledge, will most amply illustrate the history of their voyage: and it reflected much credit on the minister when he arranged the plan of it, that people of the first talents for navigation, astronomy, natural history, and every other science that could render it conspicuously useful, should have been selected for the purpose.
We found after their departure the grave of the Abbé L. Receveur, who died but a short time before they sailed: he was buried not very far from the spot where their tents were erected, at the foot of a tree, on which were nailed two pieces of board with the following inscription:
Hic jacet L. Receveur Ex F. F. Minoribus Galliae Sacerdos Physicus in Circumnavigatione Mundi Duce D. de la Perouse Obiit Die 17 Febr. Anno 1788.
Governor Phillip, on hearing that these boards had fallen down from the tree, caused the inscription to be engraven on a plate of copper, which was put up in place of the boards; but rain, and the oozing of gum from the tree, soon rendered even that illegible.
We continued to be still busily employed; a wharf for the convenience of landing stores was begun under the direction of the surveyor-general: the ordnance, consisting of two brass six-pounders on travelling carriages, four iron twelve-pounders, and two iron six-pounders, were landed; the transports, which were chartered for China, were clearing; the long-boats of the ships in the cove were employed in bringing up cabbage-tree from the lower part of the harbour, where it grew in great abundance, and was found, when cut into proper lengths, very fit for the purpose of erecting temporary huts, the posts and plates of which being made of the pine of this country, and the sides and ends filled with lengths of the cabbage-tree, plastered over with clay, formed a very good hovel. The roofs were generally thatched with the grass of the gum-rush; some were covered with clay, but several of these failed, the weight of the clay and heavy rain soon destroying them.
A gang of convicts was employed, under the direction of a person who understood the business, in making bricks at a spot about a mile from the settlement, at the head of Long Cove; at which place also two acres of ground were marked out for such officers as were willing to cultivate them and raise a little grain for their stock; it not being the intention of government to give any grants of land until the necessary accounts of the country, and of what expectations were likely to be formed from it, should be received.
Great inconvenience was found from the necessity that subsisted of suffering the stock of individuals to run loose amongst the tents and huts; much damage in particular was sustained by hogs, who frequently forced their way into them while the owners were at labour and destroyed and damaged whatever they met with. At first these losses were usually made good from the store, as it was unreasonable to expect labour where the labourer did not receive the proper sustenance; but this being soon found to open a door to much imposition, and to give rise to many fabricated tales of injuries that never existed, an order was given, that any hog caught trespassing was to be killed by the person who actually received any damage from it.
The principal street of the intended town was marked out at the head of the cove, and its dimensions were extensive. The government-house was to be constructed on the summit of a hill commanding a capital view of Long Cove, and other parts of the harbour; but this was to be a work of after-consideration; for the present, as the ground was not cleared, it was sufficient to point out the situation and define the limits of the future buildings.
On the 19th the Supply returned from Norfolk Island, having been absent four weeks and six days. We learned that she made the island on the 29th of last month, but for the five succeeding days was not able to effect a landing, being prevented by a surf which they found breaking with violence on a reef of rocks that lay across the principal bay. Lieutenant King had nearly given up all hopes of being able to land, when a small opening was discovered in the reef wide enough to admit a boat, through which he was so fortunate as to get safely with all his people and stores. When landed, he could nowhere find a space clear enough for pitching a tent; and he had to cut through an almost impenetrable wilderness before he could encamp himself and his people. Of the flock he carried with him, he lost the only she-goat he had, and one ewe. He had named the bay wherein he landed and fixed the settlement Sydney Bay, and had given the names of Phillip and Nepean to two small islands which are situated at a small distance from it.
Lieutenant King, the commandant, wrote in good spirits, and spoke of meeting all his difficulties like a man determined to overcome them. The soil of the island appeared to be very rich, but the landing dangerous, Sydney Bay being exposed to the southerly winds, with which the surf constantly breaks on the reef. The Supply lost one of her people, who was washed off the reef and drowned. There is a small bay on the other side of the island, but at a distance from the settlement, and no anchoring ground in either. The flax plant (the principal object in view) he had not discovered when the Supply sailed. Lieutenant Ball, soon after he left this harbour, fell in with an uninhabited island in lat. 31 degrees 56 minutes S and in long. 159 degrees 4 minutes East, which he named Lord Howe Island. It is inferior in size to Norfolk Island, but abounded at that time with turtle, (sixteen of which he brought away with him,) as well as with a new species of fowl, and a small brown bird, the flesh of which was very fine eating. These birds were in great abundance, and so unused to such visitors, that they suffered themselves to be knocked down with sticks, as they ran along the beach.
Pines, but no small trees, grow on this island, in which there is a good bay, but no anchoring ground. Of the pines at Norfolk Island, one measured nine feet in diameter, and another, that was found lying on the ground, measured 182 feet in length.
As the scurvy was at this time making rapid strides in the colony, the hope of being able to procure a check to its effects from the new island, rendered it in every one's opinion a fortunate discovery.
The Scarborough, Charlotte, and Lady Penrhyn transports being cleared, were discharged from government service in the latter end of the month, and the masters left at liberty to proceed on their respective voyages pursuant to the directions of their owners.
In the course of this month several convicts came in from the woods; one in particular dangerously wounded with a spear, the others very much beaten and bruised by the natives. The wounded man had been employed cutting rushes for thatching, and one of the others was a convalescent from the hospital, who went out to collect a few vegetables. All these people denied giving any provocation to the natives: it was, however, difficult to believe them; they well knew the consequences that would attend any acts of violence on their part, as it had been declared in public orders early in the month, that in forming the intended settlement, any act of cruelty to the natives being contrary to his Majesty's most gracious intentions, the offenders would be subject to a criminal prosecution; and they well knew that the natives themselves, however injured, could not contradict their assertions. There was, however, too much reason to believe that our people had been the aggressors, as the governor on his return from his excursion to Broken Bay, on landing at Camp Cove, found the natives there who had before frequently come up to him with confidence, unusually shy, and seemingly afraid of him and his party; and one, who after much invitation did venture to approach, pointed to some marks upon his shoulders, making signs they were caused by blows given with a stick. This, and their running away, whereas they had always before remained on the beach until the people landed from the boats, were strong indications that the man had been beaten by some of our stragglers. Eleven canoes full of people passed very near the Sirius, which was moored without the two points of the cove, but paddled away very fast upon the approach of some boats toward them.
The curiosity of the camp was excited and gratified for a day or two by the sight of an emu, which was shot by the governor's game-killer. It was remarkable by every stem having two feathers proceeding from it. Its height was 7 feet 2 inches, and the flesh was very well flavoured.
The run of water that supplied the settlement was observed to be only a drain from a swamp at the head of it; to protect it, therefore, as much as possible from the sun, an order was given out, forbidding the cutting down of any trees within fifty feet of the run, than which there had not yet been a finer found in any one of the coves of the harbour.
April.] As the winter of this hemisphere was approaching, it became absolutely necessary to expedite the buildings intended for the detachment; every carpenter that could be procured amongst the convicts was sent to assist, and as many as could be hired from the transports were employed at the hospital and storehouses. The long-boats of the ships still continued to bring up the cabbage-tree from the lower part of the harbour, and a range of huts was begun on the west side for some of the female convicts.
Our little camp now began to wear the aspect of distress, from the great number of scorbutic patients that were daily seen creeping to and from the hospital tents; and the principal surgeon suggested the expediency of another supply of turtle from Lord Howe Island: but it was generally thought that the season was too far advanced, and the utmost that could have been procured would have made but a very trifling and temporary change in the diet of those afflicted with the disorder.
On the 6th, divine service was performed in the new storehouse, which was covered in, but not sufficiently completed to admit provisions. One hundred feet by twenty-five were the dimensions of this building, which was constructed with great strength; yet the mind was always pained when viewing its reedy combustible covering, remembering the livid flames that had been seen to shoot over every part of this cove: but no other materials could be found to answer the purpose of thatch, and every necessary precaution was taken to guard against accidental fire.
An elderly woman, a convict, having been accused of stealing a flat iron, and the iron being found in her possession, the first moment she was left alone she hung herself to the ridge-pole of her tent, but was fortunately discovered and cut down before it was too late.
Although several thefts were committed by the convicts, yet it was in general remarked, that they conducted themselves with more propriety than could have been expected from people of their description; to prevent, however, if possible, the commission of offences so prejudicial to the welfare of the colony, his excellency signified to the convicts his resolution that the condemnation of any one for robbing the huts or stores should be immediately followed by their execution. Much of their irregularity was perhaps to be ascribed to the intercourse that subsisted, in spite of punishment, between them and the seamen from the ships of war and the transports, who at least one day in the week found means to get on shore with spirits.
Notwithstanding it was the anxious care of every one who could prevent it, that the venereal disease might not be introduced into the settlement, it was not only found to exist amongst the convicts, but the very sufferers themselves were known to conceal their having it. To stop this evil, it was ordered by the governor, that any man or woman having and concealing this disorder should receive corporal punishment, and be put upon a short allowance of provisions for six months.
Lieutenant Dawes of the marines was directed in public orders to act as officer of artillery and engineers; in consequence of which the ordnance of the settlement, and the constructing of a small redoubt on the east side, were put under his direction.
Mr. Zachariah Clark, who came out of England as agent to Mr. Richards the contractor, was at the same time appointed an assistant to the commissary; and the issuing of the provisions, which was in future to be once a week, was put under his charge.
In the course of this month a stone building was begun on the west side for the residence of the lieutenant-governor, one face of which was to be in the principal street of the intended town.
The governor, desirous of acquiring a knowledge of the country about the seat of his government, and profiting by the coolness of the weather, made during the month several excursions into the country; in one of which having observed a range of mountains to the westward, and hoping that a river might be found to take its course in their neighbourhood, he set off with a small party, intending if possible to reach them, taking with him six days provisions; but returned without attaining either object of his journey--the mountains, or a river.
He penetrated about thirty miles inland, through a country most amply clothed with timber, but in general free from underwood. On the fifth day of his excursion he had, from a rising ground which he named Belle Vue, the only view of the mountains which he obtained during the journey; and as they then appeared at too great a distance to be reached on one day's allowance of provisions, which was all they had left, he determined to return to Sydney Cove.
In Port Jackson another branch extending to the northward had been discovered; but as the country surrounding it was high, rocky, and barren, though it might add to the extent and beauty of the harbour, it did not promise to be of any benefit to the settlement.
The governor had the mortification to learn on his return from his western expedition, that five ewes and a lamb had been destroyed at the farm in the adjoining cove, supposed to have been killed by dogs belonging to the natives.
The number of sheep which were landed in this country were considerably diminished; they were of necessity placed on ground, and compelled to feed on grass, that had never before been exposed to air or sun, and consequently did not agree with them; a circumstance much to be lamented, as without stock the settlement must for years remain dependent on the mother-country for the means of subsistence.
Transactions
Transports sail for China
The Supply sails for Lord Howe Island
Return of stock in the colony in May
The Supply returns
Transactions
A convict wounded
Rush-cutters killed by the natives
Governor's excursion
His Majesty's birthday
Behaviour of the convicts
Cattle lost
Natives
Proclamation
Earthquake
Transports sail for England
Supply sails for Norfolk Island
Transactions
Natives
Convicts wounded
May.] The month of May opened with the trial, conviction, and execution of James Bennett, a youth of seventeen years of age, for breaking open a tent belonging to the Charlotte transport, and stealing thereout property above the value of five shillings. He confessed that he had often merited death before he committed the crime for which he was then about to suffer, and that a love of idleness and bad connexions had been his ruin. He was executed immediately on receiving his sentence, in the hope of making a greater impression on the convicts than if it had been delayed for a day or two.
There being no other shelter for the guard than tents, great inconvenience was found in placing under its charge more than one or two prisoners together. The convicts, therefore, who were confined at the guard until they could be conveyed to the southward, were sent to the Bare Island at the entrance of this cove, where they were to be supplied weekly with provisions from the store, and water from the Sirius, until an opportunity offered of sending them away.
The three transports sailed on the 5th, 6th, and 7th of this month for China. The Supply also sailed on the 6th for Lord Howe Island, to procure turtle and birds for the settlement, the scurvy continuing to resist every effort that could be made to check its progress by medicine; from the lateness of the season, however, little hope was entertained of her success.
The governor having directed every person in the settlement to make a return of what livestock was in his possession, the following appeared to be the total amount of stock in the colony:
1 Stallion 2 Bulls 19 Goats 5 Rabbits 35 Ducks 3 Mares 5 Cows 49 Hogs 18 Turkeys 122 Fowls 3 Colts 29 Sheep 25 Pigs 29 Geese 87 Chickens
There having been found among the convicts a person qualified to conduct the business of a bricklayer, a gang of labourers was put under his direction, and most of the huts which grew up in different parts of the cleared ground were erected by them. Another gang of labourers was put under the direction of a stonemason, and on the 15th the first stone of a building, intended for the residence of he governor until the government-house could be erected, was laid on the east side of the cove. The following inscription, engraven on a piece of copper, was placed in the foundation:
His Excellency ARTHUR PHILLIP Esq. Governor in Chief and Captain General in and over the Territory of New South Wales, landed in this Cove with the first Settlers of this Country, the 24th Day of January 1788; and on the 15th Day of May in the same Year, being the 28th of the Reign of His present Majesty GEORGE the THIRD, The First of these Stones was laid.
The large store-house being completed, and a road made to it from the wharf on the west side, the provisions were directed to be landed from the victuallers, and proper gangs of convicts placed to roll them to the store.
Carpenters were now employed in covering in that necessary building the hospital, the shingles for the purpose being all prepared; these were fastened to the roof (which was very strong) by pegs made by the female convicts.
The timber that had been cut down proved in general very unfit or the purpose of building, the trees being for the most part decayed, and when cut down were immediately warped and split by the heat of the sun. A species of pine appeared to be the best, and was chiefly used in the frame-work of houses, and in covering the roofs, the wood splitting easily into shingles.
The Supply returned in the afternoon of the 25th from Lord Howe Island, without having procured any turtle, the weather being much too cold and the season too late to find them so far to the southward.
To the southward and eastward of Lord Howe Island there is a rock, which may be seen at the distance of eighteen leagues, and which from its shape Lieutenant Ball has named Ball Pyramid.
On the 26th a soldier and a sailor were tried by the criminal court of judicature for assaulting and dangerously wounding James McNeal, a seaman. These people belonged to the Sirius, and were employed on the island where the ship's company had their garden, the seamen in cultivating the ground, and the soldier in protecting them; for which purpose he had his firelock with him. They all lived together in a hut that was built for them, and on the evening preceding the assault had received their week's allowance of spirits, with which they intoxicated themselves, and quarrelled. They were found guilty of the assault, and, as pecuniary damages were out of the question, were each sentenced to receive five hundred lashes.
Farther and still more unpleasant consequences of the ill-treatment which the natives received from our people were felt during this month. On the evening of the 21st a convict belonging to the farm on the east side was brought into the hospital, very dangerously wounded with a barbed spear, which entered about the depth of three inches into his back, between the shoulders. The account he gave of the transaction was, that having strayed to a cove beyond the farm with another man, who did not return with him, he was suddenly wounded with a spear, not having seen any natives until he received the wound. His companion ran away when the natives came up, who stripped him of all his clothes but his trousers, which they did not take, and then left him to crawl into the camp. A day or two afterwards the clothes of the man that was missing were brought in, torn, bloody, and pierced with spears; so that there was every reason to suppose that the poor wretch had fallen a sacrifice to his own folly and the barbarity of the natives.
On the 30th an officer, who had been collecting rushes in a cove up the harbour, found and brought to the hospital the bodies of two convicts who had been employed for some time in cutting rushes there, pierced through in many places with spears, and the head of one beaten to a jelly. As it was improbable that these murders should be committed without provocation, inquiry was made, and it appeared that these unfortunate men had, a few days previous to their being found, taken away and detained a canoe belonging to the natives, for which act of violence and injustice they paid with their lives.
Notwithstanding these circumstances, a party of natives in their canoes went alongside the Sirius, and some submitted to the operation of shaving: after which they landed on the western point of the cove, where they examined every thing they saw with the greatest attention, and went away peaceably, and apparently were not under any apprehension of resentment on our parts for the murders above-mentioned.
June.] The governor, however, on hearing that the two rushcutters had been killed, thought it absolutely necessary to endeavour to find out, and, if possible, secure the people who killed them; for which purpose he set off with a strong party well armed, and landed in the cove where their bodies had been found; whence he struck across the country to Botany Bay, where on the beach he saw about fifty canoes, but none of their owners. In a cove on the sea-side, between Botany Bay and Port Jackson, he suddenly fell in with an armed party of natives, in number between two and three hundred, men, women, and children. With these a friendly intercourse directly took place, and some spears, etc. were exchanged for hatchets; but the murderers of the rush-cutters, if they were amongst them, could not be discovered in the crowd. The governor hoped to have found the people still at the place where the men had been killed, in which case he would have endeavoured to secure some of them; but, not having any fixed residence, they had, perhaps, left the spot immediately after glutting their sanguinary resentment.
His Majesty's birthday was kept with every attention that it was possible to distinguish it by in this country; the morning was ushered in by the discharge of twenty-one guns from the Sirius and Supply; on shore the colours were hoisted at the flag-staff, and at noon the detachment of marines fired three volleys; after which the officers of the civil and military establishment waited upon the governor, and paid their respects to his excellency in honor of the day. At one o'clock the ships of war again fired twenty-one guns each; and the transports in the cove made up the same number between them, according to their irregular method on those occasions. The officers of the navy and settlement were entertained by the governor at dinner, and, among other toasts, named and fixed the boundaries of the first county in his Majesty's territory of New South Wales. This was called Cumberland County, in honor of his Majesty's second brother; and the limits of it to the northward were fixed by the northernmost point of Broken Bay, to the southward by the southernmost point of Broken [sic] Bay, and to the westward by Lansdown and Carmarthen Hills (the name given to the range of mountains seen by the governor in an excursion to the northward). At sunset the ships of war paid their last compliment to his Majesty by a third time firing twenty-one guns each. At night several bonfires were lighted; and, by an allowance of spirits given on this particular occasion, every person in the colony was enabled to drink his Majesty's health.
Some of the worst among the convicts availed themselves of the opportunity that was given them in the evening, by the absence of several of the officers and people from their tents and huts, to commit depredations. One officer on going to his tent found a man in it, whom with some difficulty he secured, after wounding him with his sword. The tent of another was broken into, and several articles of wearing apparel stolen out of it; and many smaller thefts of provisions and clothing were committed among the convicts. Several people were taken into custody, and two were afterwards tried and executed. One of these had absconded, and lived in the woods for nineteen days, existing by what he was able to procure by nocturnal depredations among the huts and stock of individuals. His visits for this purpose were so frequent and daring, that it became absolutely necessary to proclaim him an outlaw, as well as to declare that no person must harbour him after such proclamation.
Exemplary punishments seemed about this period to be growing daily more necessary. Stock was often killed, huts and tents broke open, and provisions constantly stolen about the latter end of the week; for among the convicts there were many who knew not how to husband their provisions through the seven days they were intended to serve them, but were known to have consumed the whole at the end of the third or fourth day. One of this description made his week's allowance of flour (eight pounds) into eighteen cakes, which he devoured at one meal; he was soon after taken speechless and senseless, and died the following day at the hospital, a loathsome putrid object.
The obvious consequence of this want of economy was, that he who had three days to live, and nothing to live on, before the store would be again open to supply his wants, must steal from those who had been more provident. Had a few persons been sent out who were not of the description of convicts, to have acted as overseers, or superintendants, regulations for their internal economy, as well in the articles of clothing as provisions, might have been formed which would have prevented these evils: it would then too have been more practicable to detect them in selling or exchanging the slops which they received, and their provisions would have been subject to a daily inspection. But overseers drawn from among themselves were found not to have that influence which was so absolutely necessary to carry any regulation into effect. And although the convicts, previous to the birthday, were assembled, and their duty pointed out to them, as well as the certain consequence of a breach or neglect thereof, both by his excellency the governor and the lieutenant-governor, yet it soon appeared that there were some among them so inured to the habits of vice, and so callous to remonstrance, that they were only restrained until a favourable opportunity presented itself.
The convicts who had been sent to the rock, in the hope that lenity to them might operate also upon others, were, on the occasion of his Majesty's birthday, liberated from their chains and confinement, and his excellency forgave the offences of which they had been respectively guilty, and which had occasioned their being sent thither.
By some strange and unpardonable neglect in the convict who had been entrusted with the care of the cattle, the two bulls and four cows were lost in the beginning of this month. The man had been accustomed to drive them out daily to seek the freshest grass and best pasturage, and was ordered never on any pretence to leave them. To this order, as it afterwards appeared, he very seldom attended, frequently coming in from the woods about noon to get his dinner, leaving them grazing at some little distance from the farm where they were kept; and in this manner they were lost. They had strayed from the spot he expected to find them on, or perhaps had been driven from it by the natives, and he spent two days in searching for them before the governor was made acquainted with the accident.
Several parties were successively sent out to endeavour the recovery of stock so essential to the colony; but constantly returned without success.
On the 27th a party of the natives, supposed to be in number from twenty to thirty, landed at the point on the east side of the cove, between the hours of eleven and twelve at night, and proceeded along close by the sentinels, stopping for some time at the spot where the governor's house was building, and in the rear of the tents inhabited by some of the women. It was said that they appeared alarmed on hearing the sentinels call out 'All is well,' and, after standing there for some time, went off toward the run of water. The sentinels were very positive that they saw them, and were minute in their relation of the above circumstances; notwithstanding which, it was conjectured by many to be only the effect of imagination. It is true, the natives might have chosen that hour of the night to gratify a curiosity that would naturally be excited on finding that we still resided among them; and perhaps for the purpose of observing whether we all passed the night in sleep.
The cold weather which we had at this time of the year was observed to affect our fishing, and the natives themselves appeared to be in great want. An old man belonging to them was found on the beach of one of the coves, almost starved to death.
It having been reported, that one of the natives who had stolen a jacket from a convict had afterwards been killed or wounded by him in an attempt to recover it, the governor issued a proclamation, promising a free pardon, with remission of the sentence of transportation, to such male or female convict as should give information of any such offender or offenders, so that he or they might be brought to trial, and prosecuted to conviction; but no discovery was made in consequence of this offer.
In the afternoon of the 22nd a slight shock of an earthquake was observed, which lasted two or three seconds, and was accompanied with a distant noise like the report of cannon, coming from the southward; the shock was local, and so slight that many people did not feel it.
July.] The Alexander, Prince of Wales, and Friendship transports, with the Borrowdale storeship, having completed their preparations for sea, sailed together on the 14th of the month for England. Two officers from the detachment of marines, Lieutenant Maxwell and Lieutenant Collins, were embarked as passengers; these gentlemen having obtained permission to return to Europe for the recovery of their healths, which had been in a bade state from the time of their arrival in the country.
The following report was made by the principal surgeon, of the state of the sick in the settlement, at the time of the departure of the ships:
The number of marines under medical treatment were 36 The number of convicts under medical treatment were 66 Convicts unfit for labour from old age and infirmities 52
And if idleness might have been taken into the account, as well it might, since many were thereby rendered of very little service to the colony, the number would have been greatly augmented.
It was now necessary to think of Norfolk Island; and on the 20th the Supply sailed with stores and provisions for that settlement.
Only two transports remained of the fleet that came out from England; these were the Golden Grove and Fishburn, and preparations were making for clearing and discharging them from government service. The people were employed in constructing a cellar on the west side for receiving the spirits which were on board the Fishburn, and in landing provisions from the Golden Grove, which were stowed in the large storehouse by some seamen belonging to the Sirius, under the inspection of the master of that ship.
From the nature of the materials with which most of the huts occupied by the convicts were covered in, many accidents happened by fire, whereby the labour of several people was lost, who had again to seek shelter for themselves, and in general had to complain of the destruction of provisions and clothing. To prevent this, an order was given, prohibiting the building of chimneys in future in such huts as were thatched.
Several thefts were committed by and among the convicts. Wine was stolen from the hospital, and some of those who had the care of it were taken upon suspicion and tried, but for want of sufficient evidence were acquitted. There was such a tenderness in these people to each other's guilt, such an acquaintance with vice and the different degrees of it, that unless they were detected in the fact, it was generally next to impossible to bring an offence home to them. As there was, however, little doubt, though no positive proof of their guilt, they were removed from the hospital, and placed under the direction of the officer who was then employed in constructing a small redoubt on the east side.
The natives, who had been accustomed to assist our people in hauling the seine, and were content to wait for such reward as the person who had the direction of the boat thought proper to give them, either driven by hunger, or moved by some other cause, came down to the cove where they were fishing, and, perceiving that they had been more successful than usual, took by force about half of what had been brought on shore. They were all armed with spears and other weapons, and made their attack with some show of method, having a party stationed in the rear with their spears poised, in readiness to throw, if any resistance had been made. To prevent this in future, it was ordered that a petty officer should go in the boats whenever they were sent down the harbour.
No precautions, however, that could be taken, or orders that were given, to prevent accidents happening by misconduct on our part, had any weight with the convicts. On the evening of the 27th one of them was brought in wounded by the natives. He had left the encampment with another convict, to gather vegetables, and, contrary to the orders which had been repeatedly given, went nearly as far as Botany Bay, where they fell in with a party of the natives, who made signs to them to go back, which they did, but unfortunately ran different ways. This being observed by the natives, they threw their spears at them. One of them was fortunate enough to escape unhurt, but the other received two spears in him, one entering a little above his left ear, the other in his breast. He took to an arm of the bay, which, notwithstanding his wounds, he swam across, and reported that the natives stood on the bank laughing at him.
Much credit, indeed, was not to be given to any of their accounts; but it must be remarked, that every accident that had happened was occasioned by a breach of positive orders repeatedly given.
Still, notwithstanding this appearance of hostility in some of the natives, others were more friendly. In one of the adjoining coves resided a family of them, who were visited by large parties of the convicts of both sexes on those days in which they were not wanted for labour, where they danced and sung with apparent good humour, and received such presents as they could afford to make them; but none of them would venture back with their visitors.
Heavy rains
Public works
Sheep stolen
Prince of Wale's birthday
Fish
Imposition of a convict
Natives
Apprehensive of a failure of provisions
Natives
Judicial administration
A convict murdered
August.] All public labour was suspended for many days in the beginning of the month of August by heavy rain; and the work of much time was also rendered fruitless by its effects; the brick-kiln fell in more than once, and bricks to a large amount were destroyed; the roads about the settlement were rendered impassable; and some of the huts were so far injured, as to require nearly as much labour to repair them as to build them anew. It was not until the 14th of the month, when the weather cleared up, that the people were again able to work. The public works then in hand were, the barracks for the marine detachment; an observatory on the west point of the cove; the houses erecting for the governor and the lieutenant-governor; and the shingling of the hospital.
Thefts among the convicts during the bad weather were frequent; and a sheep was stolen from the farm on the east side a few nights prior to the birthday of his royal highness the Prince of Wales, for celebrating of which it had been for some time kept separate from the others and fattened; and although a proclamation was issued by the governor offering a pardon, and the highest reward his excellency could offer, emancipation, to any male or female convict who should discover the person or persons concerned in the felony, except the person who actually stole or killed the sheep, no information was given that could lead to a discovery of the perpetrators of this offence.
The anniversary of the Prince of Wales's birth was observed by a cessation from all kinds of labour. At noon the troops fired three volleys at the flag-staff on the east side, after which the governor received the compliments usual on this occasion. The Sirius fired a royal salute at one o'clock, and a public dinner was given by the governor. Bonfires were lighted on each side of the cove at night, with which the ceremonies of the day concluded.
It had been imagined in England, that some, if not considerable savings of provisions might be made, by the quantities of fish that it was supposed would be taken; but nothing like an equivalent for the ration that was issued to the colony for a single day had ever been brought up.
We were informed, that the French ships, while in Botany Bay, had met with one very successful haul of large fish, that more than amply supplied both ships companies; but our people were not so fortunate. Fish enough was sometimes taken to supply about two hundred persons; but the quantity very rarely exceeded this. Three sting-rays were taken this month, two of which weighed each about three hundred weight, and were distributed amongst the people.
His royal highness Prince William Henry's birthday was distinguished by displaying the colours at the flag-staff; and this compliment was paid to other branches of the royal family whose birthdays were not directed to be observed with more ceremony.
On the 26th the Supply returned from Norfolk Island, having been absent five weeks and two days. From the commandant the most favourable accounts were received of the richness and depth of the soil and salubrity of the climate, having been visited with very little rain, or thunder and lightning. His search after the flax-plant had been successful; where he had cleared the ground he found it growing spontaneously and luxuriant: a small species of plaintain also had been discovered. His gardens promised an ample supply of vegetables; but his seed-wheat, having been heated in the long passage to this country, turned out to be damaged, and did not vegetate. The landing was found to be very dangerous, and he had the misfortune to lose Mr. Cunningham, the midshipman, with three people, and the boat they were in, by the surf on the reef, a few days before the Supply sailed. Short, however, as the time was, the carpenter of chat vessel replaced the boat by building him a coble of the timber of the island, constructed purposely for going without the reef, and for the hazardous employ she must often be engaged in.
The settlement at Sydney Cove was for some time amused with an account of the existence and discovery of a gold mine; and the impostor had ingenuity enough to impose a fabricated tale on several of the officers for truth. He pretended to have found it at some distance down the harbour; and, offering to conduct an officer to the spot, a boat was provided; but immediately on landing, having previously prevailed on the officer to send away the boat, to prevent his discovery being made public to more than one person, he made a pretence to leave him, and, reaching the settlement some hours before the officer, reported that he had been sent up by him for a guard. The fellow knew too well the consequences that would follow on the officer's arrival to wait for that, and therefore set off directly into the woods, whence he returned the day following, when he was punished with fifty lashes for his imposition. Still, however, persisting that he had discovered a metal, a specimen of which he produced, the governor, who was absent from the settlement at the opening of the business, but had now returned, ordered him to be taken again down the harbour, with directions to his adjutant to land him on the place the man should point out, and keep him in his sight; but on being assured by that officer, that if he attempted to deceive him he would put him to death, the man saved him the trouble of going far with him, and confessed that his story of having discovered a gold mine was a falsehood which he had propagated the hope of imposing on the people belonging to the Fishburn and Golden Grove, from whom, being about to prepare for Europe, he expected to procure cloathing and other articles in return for his promised gold-dust; and that he had fabricated the specimens of the metal which he had exhibited, from a guinea and a brass buckle; the remains of which he then produced.
For this imposture he was afterwards ordered by the magistrates before whom he was examined to receive a hundred lashes, and to wear a canvas frock, with the letter R cut and sewn upon it, to distinguish him more particularly from others as a rogue.
Among the people of his own description, there were many who believed, notwithstanding his confession and punishment, that he had actually made the discovery he pretended, and was induced to say it was a fabrication merely to secure it to himself, to make use of at a future opportunity. So easy is it to impose on the minds of the lower class of people!
The natives continued to molest our people whenever they chanced to meet any of them straggling and unarmed; yet, although forcibly warned by the evil and danger that attended their straggling, the latter still continued to give the natives opportunity of injuring them. About the middle of the month a convict, who had wandered beyond the limits of security which had been pointed out for them, fell in with a party of natives, about fourteen in number, who stripped and beat him shockingly, and would have murdered him had they not heard the report of a musket, which alarming them, they ran away, leaving him his clothes. On the 21st a party of natives landed from five canoes, near the point where the observatory was building, where, some of them engaging the attention of the officers and people at the observatory, the others attempted forcibly to take off a goat from the people at the hospital; in which attempt finding themselves resisted by a seaman who happened to be present, they menaced him with their spears, and, on his retiring, killed the animal and took it off in a canoe, making off toward Long Cove with much expedition. They were followed immediately by the governor, who got up with some of the party, but could neither recover the goat, nor meet with the people who had killed it.
It was much to be regretted, that none of them would place a confidence in and reside among us; as in such case, by an exchange of languages, they would have found that we had the most friendly intention toward them, and that we would ourselves punish any injury they might sustain from our people.
September.] The seed-wheat that was sown here did not turn out any better than that at Norfolk Island; in some places the ground was twice cropped, and there was reason to apprehend a failure of seed for the next year. The governor, therefore, early in this month, signified his intention of sending the Sirius to the Cape of Good Hope, to procure a sufficient quantity of grain for that purpose; together with as much flour for the settlement as she could stow, after laying in a twelvemonth's provisions for her ship's company. Her destination was intended to have been to the northward; but on making a calculation, and comparing the accounts of those navigators who had procured refreshments among the islands, it was found, that although she might provide very well for herself, yet, after an absence of three or four months, which would be the least time she would be gone, she could not bring more than would support the colony for a fortnight. At the same time his excellency made known his intention of establishing a settlement on some ground which he had seen at the head of this harbour when he made his excursion to the westward in April last, and which, from its form, he had named the Crescent. This measure appeared the more expedient, as the soil in and about the settlement seemed to be very indifferent and unproductive, and by no means so favourable for the growth of grain as that at the Crescent.
The Sirius was therefore ordered to prepare for her voyage with all expedition; and as she would be enabled to stow a greater quantity of flour by not taking all her guns, eight of them were landed on the west point of the cove, and a small breast-work thrown up in front of them.
The master of the Golden Grove storeship also was ordered to prepare for sea, the governor intending to employ that ship in taking provisions and stores, with a party of convicts, to Norfolk Island.
The stores of the detachment having been kept on board the Sirius until a building could be erected for their reception, and a storehouse for that purpose being now ready, they were removed on shore.
Two boats, one of eight and another of sixteen oars, having been sent out in frame for the use of the settlement, the carpenter of the Supply was employed in putting them together during that vessel's day in port, and one of them, the eight-oared boat, was got into the water this month; but the want of a schooner or two, of from thirty to forty tons burden, to be employed in surveying this coast, was much felt and lamented.
We had now given up all hope of recovering the cattle which were so unfortunately lost in May last; and the only cow that remained not being at that time with calf, and having since become wild and dangerous, the lieutenant-governor, whose property she was, directed her to be killed; she was accordingly shot at his farm, it being found impracticable to secure and slaughter her in the common way.
About the middle of September several canoes passed the Sirius, and above 30 natives landed from them at the observatory or western point of the cove. They were armed, and, it was imagined, intended to take off some sheep from thence; but, if this was their intention, they were prevented by the appearance of two gentlemen who happened to be there unarmed; and, after throwing some stones, they took to their canoes and paddled off.
On the 25th the people in the fishing-boat reported that several spears were thrown at them by some of the natives; for no other reason, than that, after giving them freely what small fish they had taken, they refused them a large one which attracted their attention.
On the 30th one midshipman and two seamen from the Sirius, one sergeant, one corporal, and five private marines, and twenty-one male and eleven female convicts, embarked on board the Golden Grove for Norfolk Island, and the day following she dropped down, with his Majesty's ship Sirius, to Camp Cove, whence both ships sailed on the 2nd of October.
October.] Captain Hunter, having been sworn as a magistrate soon after the arrival of the fleet, continued to act in that capacity until his departure for the Cape of Good Hope, sitting generally once a week, with the judge-advocate and the surveyor-general, to inquire into petty offences. Saturday was commonly set apart for these examinations; that day being given to the convicts for the purpose of collecting vegetables and attending to their huts and gardens.
The detachment also finding it convenient to collect vegetables, and being obliged to go for them as far as Botany Bay, the convicts were ordered to avail themselves of the protection they might find by going in company with an armed party; an never, upon any account, to straggle from the soldiers, or go to Botany Bay without them, on pain of severe punishment. Notwithstanding this order and precaution, however, a convict, who had been looked upon as a good man (no complaint having been made of him since his landing, either for dishonesty or idleness), having gone out with an armed party to procure vegetables at Botany Bay, straggled from them, though repeatedly cautioned against it, and was killed by the natives. On the return of the soldiers from the bay, he was found lying dead in the path, his head beat to a Jelly, a spear driven through it, another through his body, and one arm broken. Some people were immediately sent out to bury him; and in the course of the month the parties who went by the spot for vegetables three times reported that his body was above ground, having been, it was supposed, torn up by the natives' dogs. This poor wretch furnished another instance of the consequences that attended a disobedience of orders which had been purposely given to prevent these accidents; and as nothing of the kind was known to happen, but where a neglect and contempt of all order was first shown, every misfortune of the kind might be attributed, not to the manners and disposition of the natives, but to the obstinacy and ignorance of our people.
On the departure of the Sirius, one pound of flour was deducted from the weekly ration of those who received the full proportion, and two-thirds of a pound from such as were at two-thirds allowance. The settlement was to continue at this ration until the return of the Sirius, which was expected not to exceed six months. But public labour was not affected by this reduction. The cellar being completed and ready for the reception of the spirits that were on board the Fishburn, they were landed from that ship; and she, being cleared and discharged from government employ, hove down, and prepared for her return to England.
A gang of convicts were employed in rolling timber together, to form a bridge over the stream at the head of the cove; and such other public works as were in hand went on as usual; those employed on them in general barely exerting themselves beyond what was necessary to avoid immediate punishment for idleness.
A warrant having about this time been granted by the governor, for the purpose of assembling a general court-martial, a defect was discovered in the marine mutiny act; and it was determined by the officers, that, as marine officers, they could not sit under any other than a warrant from the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. The marines are so far distinct from his Majesty's land forces, that while on shore in any part of his Majesty's dominions, they are regulated by an act of parliament passed expressly for their guidance; and when it was found necessary to employ a corps of marines during the late war in America, they were included in the mutiny act passed for his Majesty's forces employed in that country. This provision having been neglected on the departure of the expedition for this country, and not being discovered until the very instant when it was wanted, all that could be done was to state their situation to the governor, which they did on the 13th. and at the same time requested, 'That they might be understood to be acting only in conformity with an act of the British legislature, passed expressly for their regulation while on shore in any part of his Majesty's dominions; and that they had not in any shape been wanting in the respect that belonged to the high authority of his Majesty's commission, or to the officer invested with it in this country.'
On the 24th a party of natives, meeting a convict who had straggled from the settlement to a fence that some people were making for the purpose of inclosing stock, threw several spears at him; but, fortunately, without doing him any injury. The governor, on being made acquainted with the circumstance, immediately went to the spot with an armed party, where some of them being heard among the bushes, they were fired at; it having now become absolutely necessary to compel them to keep at a greater distance from the settlement.
Settlement of Rose Hill
The Golden Grove returns from Norfolk Island
The storeships sail for England
Transactions
James Daley tried and executed for housebreaking
Botany Bay examined by the governor
A convict found dead in the woods
Christmas Day
A native taken and brought up to the settlement
Weather
Climate
Report of deaths from the departure of the fleet from England to the
31st of December 1788
November.] The month of November commenced with the establishment of a settlement at the head of the harbour. On the 2nd, his excellency the governor went up to the Crescent, with the surveyor-general, two officers, and a small party of marines, to choose the spot, and to mark out the ground for a redoubt and other necessary buildings; and two days after a party of ten convicts, being chiefly people who understood the business of cultivation, were sent up to him, and a spot upon a rising ground, which his excellency named Rose Hill, in compliment to G. Rose Esq. one of the secretaries of the treasury, was ordered to be cleared for the first habitations. The soil at this spot was of a stiff clayey nature, free from that rock which every where covered the surface at Sydney Cove, well clothed with timber, and unobstructed by underwood.
The party of convicts having, during the course of the month, been gradually increased, the subaltern's command was augmented by a captain with an additional number of private men; and it being found necessary that the commanding officer should be vested with civil power and authority sufficient to inflict corporal punishment on the convicts for idleness and other petty offences, the governor constituted him a justice of the peace for the county of Cumberland for that purpose.
10th. While this little settlement was establishing itself, the Golden Grove returned from Norfolk Island, having been absent five weeks and four days. It brought letters from Lieutenant King, the commandant, who wrote in very favourable terms of his young colony. His people continued healthy, having fish and vegetables in abundance; by the former of which he was enabled to save some of his salted provisions. He had also the promise of a good crop from the grain which had been last sown, and his gardens wore the most flourishing appearance.
A coconut perfectly fresh, and a piece of wood said to resemble the handle of a fly-flap as made at the Friendly Islands, together with the remains of two canoes, had been found among the rocks, perhaps blown from some island which might lie at no great distance.
The Golden Grove, on her return to this port, saw a very dangerous reef, the south end of which, according to the observation of Mr. Blackburn (the master of the Supply) who commanded her for the voyage, lay in the latitude of 29 degrees 25 minutes South, and longitude 159 degrees 29 minutes East. It appeared to extend, when she was about four leagues from it, from the NE by N to N.
The Golden Grove brought from Norfolk Island a lower yard and a top-gallant-mast for herself, and the like for the Fishburn.
A soldier belonging to the detachment, who was employed with some others in preparing shingles at a little distance from the settlement, was reported by his comrades, toward the latter end of last month, to be missing from the hut or tent, and parties were sent out in search of him; but returning constantly without success, he was at length given up; and a convict who was employed in assisting the party, and who had been the last person seen with him, was taken into custody; but on his examination nothing appeared that could at all affect him.
Another soldier of the detachment died at the hospital of the bruises he received in fighting with one of his comrades, who was, with three others, taken into custody, and afterward tried upon a charge of murder, but found guilty of manslaughter. Instead of burning in the hand, (which would not have been in this country an adequate punishment), each was sentenced to receive two hundred lashes.
The two storeships sailed for England on the 19th. By these ships the governor sent home dispatches, and he strongly recommended to the masters to make their passage round by the south cape of this country; but it was conjectured that they intended to go round Cape Horn, and touch at Rio de Janeiro.
The small redoubt that was begun in July last being finished, a flag-staff was erected, and two pieces of iron ordnance placed in it.
In order to prevent, if possible, the practice of thieving, which at times was very frequent, an order was given, directing that no convict, who should in future be found guilty of theft, should be supplied with any other clothing than a canvas frock and trousers. It was at the same time ordered, that such convicts as should in future fail to perform a day's labour, should receive only two thirds of the ration that was issued to those who could and did work.
Unimportant as these circumstances may appear when detailed at a distance from the time when they were necessary, they yet serve to show the nature of the people by whom this colony (whatever may be its fate) was first founded; as well as the attention that was paid by those in authority, and the steps taken by them, for establishing good order and propriety among them, and for eradicating villany and idleness.
December.] James Daley, the convict who in August pretended to have discovered an inexhaustible source of wealth, and was punished for his imposition, was observed from that time to neglect his labour, and to loiter about from hut to hut, while others were at work. He was at last taken up and tried for breaking into a house, and stealing all the property he could find in it; of this offence he was convicted, and suffered death; the governor not thinking him an object of mercy. Before he was turned off, he confessed that he had committed several thefts, to which he had been induced by bad connections, and pointed out two women who had received part of the property for the acquisition of which he was then about to pay so dear a price. These women were immediately apprehended, and one of them made a public example of, to deter others from offending in the like manner. The convicts being all assembled for muster, she was directed to stand forward, and, her head having been previously deprived of its natural covering, she was clothed with a canvas frock, on which was painted, in large characters, R. S. G. (receiver of stolen goods) and threatened with punishment if ever she was seen without it. This was done in the hope that shame might operate, at least with the female part of the prisoners, to the prevention of crimes; but a great number of both sexes had too long been acquainted with each other in scenes of disgrace, for this kind of punishment to work much reformation among them. This, however, must be understood to be spoken only of the lowest class of these people, among whom the commission of offences was chiefly found to exist; for there were convicts of both sexes who were never known to associate with the common herd, and whose conduct was marked by attention to their labour, and obedience to the orders they received.
On the 11th, the governor set off with a small party in boats, to examine the different branches of Botany Bay, and, after an excursion of five days, returned well satisfied that no part of that extensive bay was adapted to the purpose of a settlement; thus fully confirming the reports he had received from others, and the opinions he had himself formed.
A convict having been found dead in the woods near the settlement, an enquiry into the cause of his death was made by the provost-marshal; when it appeared from the evidence of Mr. Balmain, one of the assistant-surgeons who attended to open him, and of the people who lived with the deceased, that he died through want of nourishment, and through weakness occasioned by the heat of the sun. It appeared that he had not for more than a week past eaten his allowance of provisions, the whole being found in his box. It was proved by those who knew him, that he was accustomed to deny himself even what was absolutely necessary to his existence, abstaining from his provisions, and selling them for money, which he was reserving, and had somewhere concealed, in order to purchase his passage to England when his time should expire.
Mr. Reid, the carpenter of the Supply, now undertook the construction of a boat-house on the east side, for the purpose of building, with the timber of this country, a launch or hoy, capable of being employed in conveying provisions to Rose Hill, and for other useful and necessary purposes. The working convicts were employed on Saturdays, until ten o'clock in the forenoon, in forming a landing-place on the east side of the cove. At the point on the west side, a magazine was marked out, to be constructed of stone, and large enough to contain fifty or sixty barrels of powder.
Christmas Day was observed with proper ceremony. Mr. Johnson preached a sermon adapted to the occasion, and the major part of the officers of the settlement were afterward entertained at dinner by the governor.
It being remarked with concern, that the natives were becoming every day more troublesome and hostile, several people having been wounded, and others, who were necessarily employed in the woods, driven in and much alarmed by them, the governor determined on endeavouring to seize and bring into the settlement, one or two of those people, whose language it was become absolutely necessary to acquire, that they might learn to distinguish friends from enemies.
Accordingly, on the 30th a young man was seized and brought up by Lieutenant Ball of the Supply, and Lieutenant George Johnston of the marines. A second was taken; but, after dragging into the water beyond his depth the man who seized him, he got clear off. The native who was secured was immediately on his landing led up to the governor's, where he was clothed, a slight iron or manacle put upon his wrist, and a trusty convict appointed to take care of him. A small hut had been previously built for his reception close to the guardhouse, wherein he and his keeper were locked up at night; and the following morning the convict reported, that he slept very well during the night, not offering to make any attempt to get away.
The weather, during the month of December, was for the first part hot and close; the middle was fine; the latter variable, but mostly fine--upon the whole the month was very hot. The climate was allowed by every one, medical as well as others, to be fine and salubrious. The rains were heavy, and appeared to fall chiefly on or about the full and change of the moon. Thunder and lightning at times had been severe, but not attended with any bad effects since the month of February last.
The following report of the casualties which had happened from the day of our leaving England to the 31st of December 1788, was given in at this time, viz.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- Casualties from May 13, 1787, Garrison Convicts to December 31, 1788 Man Woman Child Man Woman Child Total --------------------------------------------------------------------- Died on the passage, from May 13, 1787, to Januarv 26, 1788, 1 1 1 20 4 9 36 Died between January 26, 1788, and January 1, 1789, 5 0 1 28 13 9 56 Killed by the natives in the above time, 0 0 0 4 0 0 4 Executed in the above time, 0 0 0 5 0 0 5 Missing in the above time, 1 0 0 12 1 0 14 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Total 7 1 2 69 18 18 115 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
New Year's Day
Convicts, how employed
Their disposition to idleness and vice
Her Majesty's birthday kept
Natives
Captain Shea dies
Regulations respecting the convicts
Instances of their misconduct
Transactions
The Supply sails for Norfolk Island
Public Works
Natives
Convicts killed
Stores robbed
The Supply returns
Insurrection projected at Norfolk Island
Hurricane there
Transactions at Rose Hill
1789.]
January.] The first day of the new year was marked as a holiday by a suspension of all kinds of labour, and by hoisting the colours at the fort. The ration of provisions, though still less by a pound of flour than the proper allowance, was yet so sufficient as not to be complained of, nor was labour diminished by it. Upon a calculation of the different people employed for the public in cultivation, it appeared, that of all the numbers in the colony there were only two hundred and fifty so employed--a very small number indeed to procure the means of rendering the colony independent of the mother-country for the necessaries of life. The rest were occupied in carrying on various public works, such as stores, houses, wharfs, etc. A large number were incapable, through age or infirmities, of being called out to labour in the public grounds; and the civil establishment, the military, females, and children, filled up the catalogue of those unassisting in cultivation.
The soil immediately about the settlement was found to be of too sandy a nature to give much promise of yielding a sufficient produce even for the small quantity of stock it possessed. At Rose Hill the prospect was better; indeed whatever expectations could be formed of successful cultivation in this country rested as yet in that quarter. But the convicts by no means exerted themselves to the utmost; they foolishly conceived, that they had no interest in the success of their labour; and, if left to themselves, would at any time rather have lived in idleness, and depended upon the public stores for their daily support so long as they had any thing in them, than have contributed, by the labour of their hands, to secure themselves whereon to exist when those stores should be exhausted.
Idleness, however, was not the only vice to be complained of in these people. Thefts were frequent among them; and one fellow, who, after committing a robbery ran into the woods, and from thence coming at night into the settlement committed several depredations upon individuals, and one upon the public stores, was at length taken and executed, in the hope of holding out an example to others. His thefts had been so frequent and daring, that it became necessary to offer a reward of one pound of flour to be given weekly, in addition to the ration then issued, for his apprehension. Another convict, named Ruglass, was tried for stabbing Ann Fowles, a woman with whom he cohabited, and sentenced to receive seven hundred lashes, half of which were inflicted on him while the other unhappy wretch was suffering the execution of his sentence.
The 19th was observed as the birthday of her Majesty; the colours were displayed at sunrise; at noon the detachment of marines fired three rounds; after which the governor received the compliments of the day; and at one o'clock the Supply, the only vessel in the country, fired twenty-one guns. The governor entertained the officers at dinner, and the day concluded with a bonfire, for which the country afforded abundant materials.
A day or two after this the place was agitated by a report that a great gun had been fired at sea; but on sending a boat down without the harbour's mouth, nothing was seen there that could confirm a report which every one anxiously wished might be true.
A boat having been sent down the harbour with some people to cut rushes, a party of natives came to the beach while they were so employed, and took three of their jackets out of the boat. On discovering this theft, the cockswain pursued a canoe with two men in it as far as a small island that lay just by, where the natives landed, leaving the canoe at the rocks. This the cockswain took away, contrary to an order, which had been made very public, on no account to touch a canoe, or any thing belonging to a native, and towed it to the bay where they had been cutting rushes. The natives returned to the same place unobserved, and, while the cockswain and his people were collecting what rushes they had cut, threw a spear at the cockswain, which wounded him in the arm, notwithstanding they must have known that at that time we had one of their people in our possession, on whom the injury might be retaliated. He, poor fellow, did not seem to expect any such treatment from us, and began to seem reconciled to his situation. He was taken down the harbour once or twice, to let his friends see that he was alive, and had some intercourse with them which appeared to give him much satisfaction.
For fifteen days of this month the thermometer rose in the shade above eighty degrees. Once on the 8th, at one in the afternoon, it stood at 105 degrees in the shade.
February 2nd.] Captain John Shea, of the marines, who had been for a considerable time in a declining state of health, died, and was interred with military honours the day following; the governor and every officer of the settlement attending his funeral. The major commandant of the detachment shortly after filled up the vacancy which this officer's death had occasioned by appointing Captain Lieutenant Meredith to the company; and First Lieutenant George Johnston succeeded to the captain-lieutenancy. Second Lieutenant Ralph Clarke was appointed a First, and volunteer John Ross a Second Lieutenant; but their commissions were still to receive the confirmation of the lords commissioners of the Admiralty.
The convicts being found to continue the practice of selling their clothing, an order was issued, directing, that if in future a convict should give information to the provost-marshal against any person to whom he had sold his clothes, the seller should receive them again, be permitted to keep whatever was paid him for them, and receive no punishment himself for the sale. It was also found necessary to direct, that all stragglers at night who, on being challenged by the patrole, should run from them, should be fired at; but orders, in general, were observed to have very little effect, and to be attended to only while the impression made by hearing them published remained upon the mind; for the convicts had not been accustomed to live in situations where their conduct was to be regulated by written orders. There was here no other mode of communicating to them such directions as it was found necessary to issue for their observance; and it was very common to have them plead in excuse for a breach of any regulation of the settlement, that they had never before heard of it; nor had they any idea of the permanency of an order, many of them seeming to think it issued merely for the purpose of the moment.
It was much to be regretted, that there existed a necessity for placing a confidence in these people, as in too many instances the trust was found to be abused: but unfortunately, to fill many of those offices to which free people alone should have been appointed in this colony, there were none but convicts. From these it will be readily supposed the best characters were selected, those who had merited by the propriety of their conduct the good report of the officers on board the ships in which they were embarked, and who had brought with them into those ships a better name than their fellows from the prisons in which they had been confined. Those also who were qualified to instruct and direct others in the exercise of professions in which they had superior knowledge and experience, were appointed to act as overseers, with gangs under their direction; and many had given evident proofs or strong indications of returning dispositions to honest industry.
There were others, however, who had no claim to this praise. Among these must be particularised William Bryant, to whom, from his having been bred from his youth to the business of a fisherman in the western part of England, was given the direction and management of such boats as were employed in fishing, every encouragement was held out to this man to keep him above temptation; an hut was built for him and his family; he was always presented with a certain part of the fish which he caught; and he wanted for nothing that was necessary, or that was suitable to a person of his description and situation. But he was detected in secreting and selling large quantities of fish; and when the necessary enquiry was made, this practice appeared to have been of some standing with him. For this offence he was severely punished, and removed from the hut in which he had been placed; yet as, notwithstanding his villainy, he was too useful a person to part with and send to a brick cart, he was still retained to fish for the settlement; but a very vigilant eye was kept over him, and such steps taken as appeared likely to prevent him from repeating his offence, if the sense of shame and fear of punishment were not of themselves sufficient to deter him.
A person of the name of Smith having procured a passage from England in the Lady Penrhyn, with a design to proceed to India in the event of his not finding any employment in this country, on his offering his services, and professing to have some agricultural knowledge was received into the colony, and, being judged a discreet prudent man, was placed about the provision store under the assistant to the commissary at Rose Hill, and was moreover sworn in as a peace-officer, to act as such immediately under the provost-marshal; a line wherein, from the circumstance of his being a free man, it was supposed he might render essential aid to the civil department of the colony. It was farther intended, at a future period, to place some people under his direction, to give him an opportunity of exercising the abilities he was said to possess as a practical farmer.
14th.] The magazine at the Point being now completed, the powder belonging to the settlement was lodged safely within its walls.
It being of importance to the colony to ascertain the precise situation and extent of the reefs seen by Mr. Blackburn, in the Golden Grove storeship, in November last, Leiutenant Ball (who was proceeding to Norfolk Island with provisions and convicts) was directed to perform that duty on his return. He sailed with the vessel under his command on the 17th, having on board twenty-one male and six female convicts, and three children; of the latter two were to be placed under Mr. King's care as children of the public. They were of different sexes; the boy, Edward Parkinson, who was about three years of age, had lost his mother on the passage to this country, the girl, who was a year older, had a mother in the colony; but as she was a woman of abandoned character*, the child was taken from her to save it from the ruin which would otherwise have been its inevitable lot. These children were to be instructed in reading and writing, and in husbandry. The commandant of the island was directed to cause five acres of ground to be allotted and cultivated for their benefit, by such person as he should think fit to entrust with the charge of bringing them up according to the spirit of this intention, in promoting the success of which every friend of humanity seemed to feel an interest.
[* The same who was wounded by Ruglass, earlier this chapter]
The cove was now, for the first time, left without a ship; a circumstance not only striking by its novelty, but which forcibly drew our attention to the peculiarity of our situation. The Sirius was gone upon a long voyage to a distant country for supplies, the arrival of which were assuredly precarious. The Supply had left us, to look after a dangerous reef; which service, in an unknown sea, might draw upon herself the calamity which she was seeking to instruct others to avoid. Should it have been decreed, that the arm of misfortune was to fall with such weight upon us, as to render at any time the salvation of this little vessel necessary to the salvation of the colony, how deeply was every one concerned in her welfare! Reflection on the bare possibility of its miscarriage made every mind anxious during her absence from the settlement.
From the evident necessity that existed of maintaining a strict discipline among the military employed in this country, it became a requisite to punish with some severity any flagrant breach of military subordination that might occur. Joseph Hunt, a soldier in the detachment, having been found absent from his post when stationed as a sentinel, was tried by a court-martial, and sentenced to receive seven hundred lashes; which sentence was put in execution upon him at two periods, with an interval of three weeks.
Toward the end of this month the detachment took possession of their barracks; two of which, having been nearly twelve months in hand, were now completed, and ready for their reception. A brick house, forty feet by thirteen, was begun on the east side for the commissary; and materials were preparing for a guard-house.
At Rose Hill the people were principally employed in clearing and cultivating land; but the labour of removing the timber off the ground when cut down very much retarded the best efforts of the people so employed. The military and convicts still lived under tents; and, as a proof of the small space which they occupied, two Emus or Cassowaries, who must have been feeding in the neighbourhood, ran through the little camp, and were so intermingled with the people, who ran out of their tents at so strange an appearance, that it became dangerous to fire at them; and they got clear off, though literally surrounded by a multitude of people, and under the very muzzles of some of their muskets.
Very little molestation was at this time given by the natives; and had they never been ill treated by our people, instead of hostility, it is more than probable that an intercourse of friendship would have subsisted.
March.] The impracticability of keeping the convicts within the limits prescribed for them became every day more evident. Almost every month since our arrival had produced one or more accidents, occasioned principally by a non-compliance with the orders which had been given solely with a view to their security; and which, with thinking beings, would have been of sufficient force as examples to deter others from running into the same danger. But neither orders nor dangers seemed to be at all regarded where their own temporary convenience prompted them to disobey the one, or run the risk of incurring the other. A convict belonging to the brick-maker's gang had strayed into the woods for the purpose of collecting sweet tea; an herb so called by the convicts, and which was in great estimation among them. The leaves of it being boiled, they obtained a beverage not unlike liquorice in taste, and which was recommended by some of the medical gentlemen here, as a powerful tonic. It was discovered soon after our arrival, and was then found close to the settlement; but the great consumption had not rendered it scarce. It was supposed, that the convict in his search after this article had fallen in with a party of natives, who had killed him. A few days after this accident, a party of the convicts, sixteen in number, chiefly belonging to the brick-maker's gang, quitted the place of their employment, and, providing themselves with stakes, set off toward Botany Bay, with a determination to revenge, upon whatever natives they should meet, the treatment which one of their brethren had received at the close of the last month. Near Botany Bay they fell in with the natives, but in a larger body than they expected or desired. According to their report, they were fifty in number; but much dependance was not placed on what they said in this respect, nor in their narrative of the affair; it was certain, however, that they were driven in by the natives, who killed one man and wounded six others. Immediately on this being known in the settlement, an armed party was sent out with an officer, who found the body of the man that had been killed, stripped, and lying in the path to Botany Bay. They also found a boy, who had likewise been stripped and left for dead by the natives. He was very much wounded, and his left ear nearly cut off. The party, after burying the body of the man, returned with the wounded boy, but without seeing any of the perpetrators of this mischief; the other wounded people had reached the settlement, and were taken to the hospital. The day following, the governor, judging it highly necessary to make examples of these misguided people, who had so daringly and flagrantly broken through every order which had been given to prevent their interfering with the natives as to form a party expressly to meet with and attack them, directed that those who were not wounded should receive each one hundred and fifty lashes, and wear a fetter for a twelvemonth; the like punishment was directed to be inflicted upon those who were in the hospital, as soon as they should recover from their wounds; in pursuance of which order, seven of them were tied up in front of the provision store, and punished (for example's sake) in the presence of all the convicts.
The same day two armed parties were sent, one toward Botany Bay, and the other in a different direction, that the natives might see that their late act of violence would neither intimidate nor prevent us from moving beyond the settlement whenever occasion required.
Such were our enemies abroad: at home, within ourselves, we had enemies to encounter of a different nature, but in their effects more difficult to guard against. The gardens and houses of individuals, and the provision store, were overrun with rats. The safety of the provisions was an object of general consequence, and the commissary was for some time employed in examining into the state of the store. One morning, on going early to the store, he found the wards of a key which had been broken in the padlock that secured the principal door, and which it was the duty of the patrols to visit and inspect every night. Entering the storehouse, he perceived that an harness-cask had been opened and some provisions taken out. It being supposed that the wards of the key might lead to a discovery of the perpetrator of this atrocious act, they were sent to a convict blacksmith, an ingenious workman through whose hands most of the work passed that was done in his line, who immediately knew them to belong to a soldier of the name of Hunt, the same who in the course of the preceding month received seven hundred lashes, and who had some time back brought the key to this blacksmith to be altered. 0n this information, Hunt was taken up; but offering to give some material information, he was admitted an evidence on the part of the crown, and made an ample confession before the lieutenant-governor and the judge-advocate, in which he accused six other soldiers of having been concerned with him in the diabolical practice of robbing the store for a considerable time past of liquor and provisions in large quantities. This crime, great enough of itself, was still aggravated by the manner in which it was committed. Having formed their party, seven in number, and sworn each other to secrecy and fidelity, they procured and altered keys to fit the different locks on the three doors of the provision store; and it was agreed, that whenever any one of the seven should be posted there as sentinel during the night, two or more of the gang, as they found it convenient, were to come during the hours in which they knew their associate would have the store under his charge, when, by means of their keys, and sheltered in the security which he afforded them (by betraying in so flagrant a manner the trust and confidence reposed in him as a sentinel), they should open a passage into the store, where they should remain shut up until they had procured as much liquor or provisions as they could take off. If the patrols visited the store while they chanced to be within its walls, the door was found locked and secure, the sentinel alert and vigilant on his post, and the store apparently safe.
Fortunately for the settlement, on the night preceding the discovery one of the party intended to have availed himself of his situation as sentinel, and to enter the store alone, purposing to plunder without the participation of his associates. But while he was standing with the key in the lock, he heard the patrol advancing. The key had done its office, but as he knew that the lock would be examined by the corporal, in his fright and haste to turn it back again, he mistook the way, and, finding that he could not get the key out of the lock, he broke it, and was compelled to leave the wards in it; the other part of the key he threw away.
On this information, the six soldiers whom he accused were taken up and tried; when, the evidence of the accomplice being confirmed by several strong corroborating circumstances, among which it appeared that the store had been broken into and robbed by them at various times for upwards of eight months, they were unanimously found guilty, and sentenced to suffer that death which they owned they justly merited. Their defence wholly consisted in accusing the accomplice of having been the first to propose and carry the plan into execution, and afterwards the first to accuse and ruin the people he had influenced to associate with him. A crime of such magnitude called for a severe example; and the sentence was carried into execution a few days after their trial.
Some of these unhappy men were held in high estimation by their officers, but the others, together with the accomplice Hunt, had been long verging toward this melancholy end. Four of them had been tried for the death of their comrade Bulmore, which happened in a contest with one of them in November last; and their manner of conducting themselves at various times appeared to have been very reprehensible. The liquor which they procured from the store was the cause of drunkenness, which brought on affrays and disorders, for which, as soldiers, they were more than once punished. To these circumstances must be added (what perhaps must be considered as the root of these evils) a connexion which subsisted between them and some of the worst of the female convicts, at whose huts, notwithstanding the internal regulations of their quarters, they found means to enjoy their ill-acquired plunder.
On the morning of their execution, one of them declared to the clergyman who attended him, that the like practices had been carried on at the store at Rose Hill by similar means and with similar success. He named two soldiers and a convict as the persons concerned; these were afterwards apprehended, and underwent an examination of several hours by the lieutenant-governor and the judge-advocate, during which nothing being drawn from either that could affect the others, they were all discharged. It was, however, generally believed, that the soldier would not in his dying moments have falsely accused three men of a crime which they had never committed; and that nothing but their constancy to each other had prevented a discovery of their guilt.
While these transactions were passing at Sydney, the little colony at Norfolk Island had been threatened with an insurrection. The Supply returned from thence the 24th, after an absence of five weeks, and brought from Lieutenant King, the commandant, information of the following chimerical scheme. The capture of the island, and the subsequent escape of the captors, was to commence by the seizure of Mr. King's person, which was intended to be effected on the first Saturday after the arrival of any ship in the bay, except the Sirius. They had chosen that particular day in the week, as it had been for some time Mr. King's custom on Saturdays to go to a farm which he had established at some little distance from the settlement, and the military generally chose that day to bring in the cabbage palm from the woods. Mr. King was to be secured in his way to his farm. A message, in the commandant's name, was then to be sent to Mr. Jamison, the surgeon, who was to be seized as soon as he got into the woods; and the sergeant and the party were to be treated in the same manner. These being all properly taken care of, a signal was to be made to the ship in the bay to send her boat on shore, the crew of which were to be made prisoners on their landing; and two or three of the insurgents were to go off in a boat belonging to the island, and inform the commanding officer that the ship's boat had been stove on the beach, and that the commandant requested another might be sent ashore; this also was to be captured: and then, as the last act of this absurd scheme, the ship was to be taken, with which they were to proceed to Otaheite, and there establish a settlement. They charitably intended to leave some provisions for the commandant and his officers, and for such of the people as did not accompany them in their escape--this was their scheme. Not one difficulty in the execution of it ever occurred to their imagination: all was to happen with as much facility as it was planned; and, had it not been fortunately revealed to a seaman belonging to the Sirius, who lived with Mr. King as a gardener, by a female convict who cohabited with him, there was no doubt but that all these improbabilities would have been attempted.
On being made acquainted with these circumstances, the commandant took such measures as appeared to him necessary to defeat them; and several who were concerned in the scheme confessed the share which they were to have had in the execution of it. Mr. King had hitherto, from the peculiarity of his situation--secluded from society, and confined to a small speck in the vast ocean, with but a handful of people--drawn them round him, and treated them with the kind attentions which a good family meets with at the hands of a humane master; but he now saw them in their true colours, and one of his first steps, when peace was restored, was to clear the ground as far as possible round the settlement, that future villainy might not find a shelter in the woods for its transactions. To this truly providential circumstance, perhaps, many of the colonists afterwards were indebted for their lives.
On Thursday the 26th of February the island was visited by a hurricane which came on early in the morning in very heavy gales of wind and rain. By four o'clock several pines of 180 and 200 feet in length, and from 20 to 30 feet in circumference, were blown down. From that hour until noon the gale increased to a dreadful hurricane, with torrents of heavy rain. Every instant pines and live oaks, of the largest dimensions, were borne down by the fury of the blast, which, tearing up roots and rocks with them, left chasms of eight or ten feet depth in the earth. Those pines that were able to resist the wind bent their tops nearly to the ground; and nothing but horror and desolation everywhere presented itself. A very large live oak tree was blown on the granary, which it dashed to pieces, and stove a number of casks of flour; but happily, by the activity of the officers and free people, the flour, Indian corn, and stores, were in a short time collected, and removed to the commandant's house, with the loss only of about half a cask of flour, and some small stores. At noon the gale blew with the utmost violence, tearing up whole forests by the roots. At one o'clock there were as many trees torn up by the roots as would have required the labour of fifty men for a fortnight to have felled. Early in the forenoon the swamp and vale were overflowed, and had every appearance of a large navigable river. The gardens, public and private, were wholly destroyed; cabbages, turnips, and other plants, were blown out of the ground; and those which withstood the hurricane seemed as if they had been scorched. An acre of Indian corn which grew in the vale, and which would have been ripe in about three weeks, was totally destroyed*.
[* The direction of the hurricane was across the island from the South-east; and as its fury had blown down more trees than were found lying on the ground when Mr. King landed on it, he conjectured that it was not an annual visitant of the island. This conjecture seems now to be justified, as nothing of the kind has since occurred there.]
His people continued to be healthy, and the climate had not forfeited the good opinion he had formed of it. He acquainted the governor, that for his internal defence he had formed all the free people on the island into a militia, and that a military guard was mounted every night as a picket. There were at this time victualled on the island sixteen free people, fifty-one male convicts, twenty-three female convicts, and four children.
The arrival of the Supply with an account of these occurrences created a temporary variety in the conversation of the day; and a general satisfaction appeared when the little vessel that brought them dropped her anchor again in the cove. Lieutenant Ball, having lost an anchor at Norfolk Island, did not think it prudent to attempt to fall in with the shoal seen by the Golden Grove storeship; his orders on that head being discretionary.
We now return to the transactions of the principal settlement. The person who was noticed in the occurrences of the last month as being employed at Rose Hill under the commissary, had been also entrusted with the direction of the convicts who were employed in clearing and cultivating ground at that place; but, being advanced in years, he was found inadequate to the task of managing and controlling the people who were under his care, the most of whom were always inventing plausible excuses for absence from labour, or for their neglect of it while under his eye. He was therefore removed, and succeeded by a person who came out from England as a servant to the governor. This man joined to much agricultural knowledge a perfect idea of the labour to be required from, and that might he performed by the convicts; and his figure was calculated to make the idle and the worthless shrink if he came near them. He had hitherto been employed at the spot of ground which was cleared soon after our arrival at the adjoining cove, since distinguished by the name of Farm Cove, and which, from the natural poverty of the soil, was not capable of making an adequate return for the labour which had been expended on it. It was, however, still attended to, and the fences kept in repair; but there was not any intention of clearing more ground in that spot.
Toward the latter end of the month two of the birds distinguished in the colony by the name of Emus were brought in by some of the people employed to shoot for the officers. The weight of each was seventy pounds.
Neutral Bay
Smallpox among the natives
Captain Hunter in the Sirius returns with supplies from the Cape of Good Hope
Middleton Island discovered
Danger of wandering in the forests of an unknown country
Convicts
The King's birthday kept
Convicts perform a play
A reinforcement under Lieutenant Cresswell sent to Norfolk Island
Governor Phillip makes an excursion of discovery
Transactions
Hawkesbury River discovered
Progress at Rose Hill
Important papers left behind in England
April.] The governor thinking it probable that foreign ships might again visit this coast, and perhaps run into this harbour for the purpose of procuring refreshments, directed Mr. Blackburn to survey a large bay on the north shore, contiguous to this cove; and a sufficient depth of water being found, his excellency inserted in the port orders, that all foreign ships coming into this harbour should anchor in this bay, which he named Neutral Bay, bringing Rock Island to bear SSE and the hospital on the west side of Sydney Cove to bear SW by W.
Early in the month, and throughout its continuance, the people whose business called them down the harbour daily reported, that they found, either in excavations of the rock, or lying upon the beaches and points of the different coves which they had been in, the bodies of many of the wretched natives of this country. The cause of this mortality remained unknown until a family was brought up, and the disorder pronounced to have been the smallpox. It was not a desirable circumstance to introduce a disorder into the colony which was raging with such fatal violence among the natives of the country; but the saving the lives of any of these people was an object of no small importance, as the knowledge of our humanity, and the benefits which we might render them, would, it was hoped, do away the evil impressions they had received of us. Two elderly men, a boy, and a girl were brought up, and placed in a separate hut at the hospital. The men were too far overcome by the disease to get the better of it; but the children did well from the moment of their coming among us. From the native who resided with us we understood that many families had been swept off by this scourge, and that others, to avoid it, had fled into the interior parts of the country. Whether it had ever appeared among them before could not be discovered, either from him or from the children; but it was certain that they gave it a name (gal-gal-la); a circumstance which seemed to indicate a preacquaintance with it.
The convicts, among other public works, were now employed in forming a convenient road on the west side from the hospital and landing-place to the storehouses; and in constructing a stable at Farm Cove, with some convenient out-houses for stock.
May.] Of the native boy and girl who had been brought up in the last month, on their recovery from the smallpox, the latter was taken to live with the clergyman's wife, and the boy with Mr. White, the surgeon, to whom, for his attention during the cure, he seemed to be much attached.
While the eruptions of this disorder continued upon the children, a seaman belonging to the Supply, a native of North America, having been to see them, was seized with it, and soon after died; but its baneful effects were not experienced by any white person of the settlement, although there were several very young children in it at the time.
From the first hour of the introduction of the boy and girl into the settlement, it was feared that the native who had been so instrumental in bringing them in, and whose attention to them during their illness excited the admiration of every one that witnessed it, would be attacked by the same disorder; as on his person were found none of those traces of its ravages which are frequently left behind. It happened as the fears of every one predicted; he fell a victim to the disease in eight days after he was seized with it, to the great regret of every one who had witnessed how little of the savage was found in his manner, and how quickly he was substituting in its place a docile, affable, and truly amiable deportment.
6th.] After an absence of seven months and six days, to the great satisfaction of every one, about five in the evening his Majesty's ship Sirius anchored in the cove from the Cape of Good Hope. Captain Hunter sailed from this port on the 2nd of October 1788, and, during the space which had elapsed between his departure and his return, had circumnavigated the globe. He made his passage by Cape Horn, arriving on the 2nd of last January at the Cape of Good Hope, from which place he sailed on the 20th of the following month. Off the southern extremity of this country the Sirius met with a gale of wind, when so close in with the land that it was for some time doubtful whether she would clear it. In this gale she received considerable damage; the head of the ship, the figure of the Duke of Berwick, was torn from the cutwater, and she was afterwards found to have been very much weakened.
The Sirius brought 127,000 weight of flour for the settlement, and a twelvemonth's provisions for her ship's company; but this supply was not very flattering, as the short space of four months, at a full ration, would exhaust it. It was, however, very welcome, and her return seemed to have gladdened every heart. Eager were our inquiries after intelligence from that country from which we had been now two years divided, and to whose transactions we were entire strangers. With joy, mingled with concern that we were not personal sharers in the triumph, did we hear of our country's successful efforts in the cause of the Stadtholder, and of the noble armaments which our ministers had fitted out to support it. We trusted, however, that while differently employed, our views were still directed to the same object; for, though labouring at a distance, and in an humbler scene, yet the good, the glory, and the aggrandizement of our country were prime considerations with us. And why should the colonists of New South Wales be denied the merit of endeavouring to promote them, by establishing civilization in the savage world; by animating the children of idleness and vice to habits of laborious and honest industry; and by showing the world that to Englishmen no difficulties are insuperable?
We heard with concern that Lieutenant Shortland was near five months in reaching Batavia in the Alexander, in which ship he sailed from this port on the 14th of last July, in company with the Friendship, Borrowdale, and Prince of Wales. From this ship and the Borrowdale he parted company very shortly after leaving our harbour; they proceeded round Cape Horn, to Rio de Janeiro, where in last December they were left lying ready for sea. The Alexander and Friendship proceeding to the northward kept company together as far as the island of Borneo, where, the crews of both ships being so much reduced by the scurvy (the Alexander had buried seventeen of her seamen) that it was impossible to navigate both vessels against the strong currents which they met with, and the western monsoon which had then set in, both ships were brought to an anchor, and most of the Friendship's stores, with all her people, being taken out and received on board the Alexander, she was scuttled and sunk. When the Alexander arrived at Batavia, she had, of both ship's crews, but one man who was able to go aloft.
Lieutenant Shortland, in his letter, noticed some discoveries which he had made; particularly one of an extensive and dangerous shoal, which obtained the name of Middleton Shoal, and was reckoned to be in the latitude of 29 degrees 20 minutes South, and in the longitude of 158 degrees 40 minutes East. He had also discovered an island, which he placed in the latitude of 28 degrees 10 minutes South, and in the longitude of 159 degrees 50 minutes East, and named Sir Charles Middleton Island: his other discoveries, not being so immediately in the vicinity of this territory, were not likely to be of any advantage to the settlement; but it was of some importance to it to learn that an extensive reef was so near, and to find its situation ascertained to be in the track of ships bound from hence to the northward; for if Sir Charles Middleton Island should hereafter be found to possess a safe and convenient harbour, it might prove an interesting discovery for this colony.
A Dutch ship, bound for Europe, sailing from the Cape of Good Hope on the 9th of last January, Captain Hunter took that opportunity of forwarding the dispatches with which he had been charged by Governor Phillip. He was informed by the master of the Harpy Whaler, who had put into Table Bay, that in England there had been a general anxiety to hear of our safety and arrival in this country, and that ships to be taken up had been advertised for, but had not been engaged, as the government waited for accounts from Governor Phillip.
Of these accounts it was hoped that ministers had been some time in possession, and that in consequence supplies were at this hour on their passage to New South Wales.
Our attention was now directed to receiving from the Sirius the provisions she had brought us; and as the flour had been packed in bags at the Cape of Good Hope, the coopers were immediately employed in setting up and preparing casks for its reception on shore. These being soon completed, the flour was landed and deposited in the store. This, with the building and covering-in of a new hut for the smith's work, formed the principal labour of the convicts at Sydney during this month.
The boats in the colony not being found sufficient for the purpose of transporting provisions from the store at Sydney to the settlement at Rose Hill, a launch or hoy was put upon the stocks, under the direction of Mr. Reid, the carpenter of the Supply, to be employed for that and other necessary purposes. She was to be built of the timber of the country, and to carry ten tons.
From that settlement, early in the month, two soldiers of the detachment doing duty there were reported to be missing; and, though parties had been sent out daily in different directions to seek for them, yet all was unavailing. It was supposed that they must have lost their way in some of the thick and almost impenetrable brushes which were in the vicinity of Rose Hill, and had there perished miserably. They had gone in search of the sweet tea plant already mentioned; and perhaps when they resigned themselves to the fate which they did not see how to avoid, oppressed with hunger, and unable to wander any farther, they may have been but a short distance from the relief they must so earnestly have desired. A dog that was known to have left the settlement with them reached Rose Hill, almost famished, nine days after they had left it. The extreme danger attendant on a man's going beyond the bounds of his own knowledge in the forests of an unsettled country could no where be more demonstrable than in this. To the westward was an immense open track before him, in which, if unbefriended by either sun or moon, he might wander until life were at an end. Most of the arms which extended into the country from Port Jackson and the harbour on each side of Port Jackson, were of great length, and to round them without a certain and daily supply of provisions was impossible*.
[* In many of these arms, when sitting with my companions at my ease in a boat, I have been struck with horror at the bare idea of being lost in them; as, from the great similarity of one cove to another, the recollection would be bewildered in attempting to determine any relative situation. It is certain, that if destroyed by no other means, insanity would accelerate the miserable end that must ensue.]
To guard as much as possible against these accidents every measure which could be suggested was adopted. A short time after the settlement was established at Rose Hill, the governor went out with some people in a direction due South, and caused a visible path to be made; that if any person who had strayed beyond his own marks for returning, and knew not where he was, should cross upon his path, he might by following it have a chance of reaching the settlement; and orders were repeatedly given to prohibit straggling beyond the limits which were marked and known.
Toward the end of the month, some convicts having reported that they had found the body of a white man lying in a cove at a short distance from the settlement, a general muster of the convicts at Sydney was directed; but no person was unaccounted for except Caesar, an incorrigibly stubborn black, who had absconded a few days before from the service of one of the officers, and taken to the woods with some provisions, an iron pot, and a soldier's musket, which he had found means to steal.
Garden robberies, after Caesar's flight, were frequent, and some leads belonging to a seine being stolen, a reward of a pardon was held out to any of the accomplices on discovering the person who stole them; and the like reward was also offered if, in five days, he should discover the person who had purchased them; but all was without effect. It was conjectured that they had been stolen for the purpose of being converted into shot by some person not employed or authorized to kill the game of this country.
The weather during the latter part of this month was cold; notwithstanding which a turtle was seen in the harbour.
June 4.] The anniversary of his Majesty's birthday, the second time of commemorating it in this country, was observed with every distinction in our power; for the first time, the ordnance belonging to the colony were discharged; the detachment of marines fired three volleys, which were followed by twenty-one guns from each of the ships of war in the cove; the governor received the compliments due to the day in his new house, of which he had lately taken possession as the government-house of the colony, where his excellency afterwards entertained the officers at dinner, and in the evening some of the convicts were permitted to perform Farquhar's comedy of the Recruiting Officer, in a hut fitted up for the occasion. They professed no higher aim than 'humbly to excite a smile,' and their efforts to please were not unattended with applause.
In addition to the steps taken by the commandant of Norfolk Island for his internal security, the governor thought an increase of his military force absolutely necessary. Accordingly, the day after his Majesty's birthday, Lieutenant Creswell, with fourteen privates from the detachment of marines, embarked on board the Supply for Norfolk Island; and at the same time he received a written order from his excellency to take upon himself the direction and execution of the authority vested in Mr. King, in the event of any accident happening to that officer, until a successor should be formally appointed and sent from hence.
The Supply, on her return from Norfolk Island, was to visit the island seen by Lieutenant Shortland, and laid down by him, in the latitude of 28 degrees 10 minutes South. She was also to cruise for the shoal seen by that officer, and stated to be in the latitude of 29 degrees 20 minutes South, and for the shoal seen by Mr. Blackburn, the south end of which lay in the latitude of 29 degrees 25 minutes South; all of which, if the observations of both officers were equally correct, would, it was supposed, be found contiguous to each other. Lieutenant Ball was directed to land upon the island, if landing should be found practicable; and to determine, if he could, the extent and situation of the shoals.
On these services the Supply sailed the 6th of this month; on which day the governor set off with a party on a second excursion to Broken Bay, in the hope of being able, from the head of that harbour, to reach the mountains inland. His excellency returned to the settlement on the evening of the 16th, having discovered a capacious freshwater river, emptying itself into Broken Bay, and extending to the westward. He was compelled to return without tracing it to its source, not having a sufficient quantity of provisions with him; but immediately made the necessary preparations for returning to finish his examination of it; and set off on that design with an increased party, and provisions for twenty-one days, on Monday the 29th.
Caesar, being closely attended to, was at length apprehended and secured. This man was always reputed the hardest working convict in the country; his frame was muscular and well calculated for hard labour; but in his intellects he did not very widely differ from a brute; his appetite was ravenous, for he could in any one day devour the full ration for two days. To gratify this appetite he was compelled to steal from others, and all his thefts were directed to that purpose. He was such a wretch, and so indifferent about meeting death, that he declared while in confinement, that if he should be hanged, he would create a laugh before he was turned off, by playing off some trick upon the executioner. Holding up such a mere animal as an example was not expected to have the proper or intended effect; the governor therefore, with the humanity that was always conspicuous in his exercise of the authority vested in him, directed that he should be sent to Garden Island, there to work in fetters; and in addition to his ration of provisions he was to be supplied with vegetables from the garden.
The Sirius had, in the gale of wind which she met with off Tasman's Head, sustained much more damage, and was, upon inspection, found to have been weakened much more than was at first conjectured. This was the more unfortunate, as, from the nature of our situation, many important services were yet to be rendered by her to the colony. It became, therefore, a matter of public concern to have her damages repaired and the ship strengthened as expeditiously and as efficaciously as our abilities would admit. A convenient retired cove on the north shore being fixed on for the purpose of a careening cove, she dropped down and took possession of it toward the latter end of the month. She could have been refitted with much ease at Sydney; but there was no doubt that the work necessary to be done to her would meet with fewer interruptions, if the people who were engaged in it were removed from the connections which seamen generally form where there are women of a certain character and description.
The gang under the direction of the overseer employed at the brick fields had hitherto only made ten thousand bricks in a month. A kiln was now constructed in which thirty thousand might be burnt off in the same time, which number the overseer engaged to deliver.
The carpenter of the Supply, who had undertaken the construction of the hoy, being obliged to proceed with that vessel on her going to sea, the direction of the few people employed upon her was left with the carpenter of the Sirius during his absence.
July 14.] The governor returned from his second visit to the river, which he named the Hawkesbury, in honor of the noble lord at the head of the committee of council of trade and plantations. He traced the river to a considerable distance to the westward, and was impeded in his further progress by a shallow which he met with a short distance above the hill formerly seen, and then named by him Richmond Hill, to the foot of which the course of the Hawkesbury conducted him and his party. They were deterred from remaining any time in the narrow part of the river, as they perceived evident traces of the freshes having risen to the height of from twenty to forty feet above the level of the water. They represented the windings of the river as beautiful and picturesque; and toward Richmond Hill the face of the country appeared more level and open than in any other part. The vast inundations which had left such tokens behind them of the height to which they swell the river seemed rather unfavourable for the purpose of settling near the banks, which otherwise would have been convenient and desirable, the advantages attending the occupation of an allotment of land on the margin of a fresh-water river being superior to those of any other situation. The soil on the banks of the river was judged to be light; what it was further inland could not be determined with any certainty, as the travellers did not penetrate to any distance, except at Richmond Hill, where the soil appeared to be less mixed with sand than that on the branches.
During the governor's absence the sail-maker of the Sirius had strayed into the woods about the cove where she was repairing, and, not knowing the country, wandered so far that he could not find his way back to the ship. Fortunately for him, the governor, on his return from Broken Bay, met with him in the north arm of this harbour, but so weakened by hunger and fatigue, as to have all the appearance of intoxication when first discovered and spoken to, and in a situation so remote from a probability of assistance, that perhaps a few days more would have fixed the period of his existence.
On visiting the settlement at Rose Hill, the convicts were all found residing in very good huts, apparently under proper regulations, and encouraged to work in the gardens, which they had permission to cultivate during those hours which were not dedicated to public labour. A barrack for the soldiers was erected in the small redoubt which had been constructed, and in which also stood the provision store. Some ground had been opened on the other side of the stream of water which ran into the creek, where a small house had been built for the superintendant Dodd, under whose charge were to be placed a barn and granaries, in which the produce of the ground he was then filling with wheat and barley was to be deposited. The people of all descriptions continued very healthy; and the salubrity of the climate rendered medicine of little use.
Notwithstanding little more than two years had elapsed since our departure from England, several convicts about this time signified that the respective terms for which they had been transported had expired, and claimed to be restored to the privileges of free men. Unfortunately, by some unaccountable oversight, the papers necessary to ascertain these particulars had been left by the masters of the transports with their owners in England, instead of being brought out and deposited in the colony; and as, thus situated, it was equally impossible to admit or to deny the truth of their assertions, they were told to wait until accounts could be received from England; and in the mean time by continuing to labour for the public, they would be entitled to share the public provisions in the store. This was by no means satisfactory, as it appeared that they expected an assurance from the governor of receiving some gratuity for employing their future time and labour for the benefit of the settlement. One of these people having, in the presence of his excellency, expressed himself disrespectfully of the lieutenant-governor, he was brought before a criminal court and tried for the same, of which offence being found guilty, he was sentenced to receive six hundred lashes, and to wear irons for the space of six months.
It must be acknowledged, that these people were most peculiarly and unpleasantly situated. Conscious in their own minds that the sentence of the law had been fulfilled upon them, it must have been truly distressing to their feelings to find that they could not be considered in any other light, or received into any other situation, than that in which alone they had been hitherto known in the settlement.
In the infancy of the colony, however, but little was to be gained by their being restored to the rights and privileges of free people, as no one was in possession of such abundance as to afford to support another independent of the public store. Every man, therefore, must have wrought for his provisions; and if they had been gratified in their expectation of being paid for their labour, the price of provisions in this country would certainly have been found equal, if not superior, to any value they could have set upon their time and labour for the public. As these considerations must have offered themselves to the notice of many good understandings which were among them, it was rather conjectured, that the dissatisfaction which evidently prevailed on this subject was set on foot and fomented by some evil-designing spirits and associates in former iniquities. The governor, however, terminated this business for the present, by directing the judge-advocate to take the affidavits of such persons as would make oath that they had served the term prescribed by the law, and by recommending them to work for the public until some information was received from government on that head.
The observatory which was erected on our first landing being found small and inconvenient, as well for the purpose of observing as for the residence of Lieutenant Dawes and the reception of the astronomical instruments, the stone-cutters began preparing stone to construct another, the materials for which were found in abundance upon the spot, the west point of the cove.
Barracks
Stock
Intelligence from Norfolk Island
Police established at the principal settlement
A successful haul of fish
A soldier tried for a rape
Provisions begin to fail
Natives
A launch completed
Rats
Ration reduced to two-thirds
Sirius returns to the Cove
One of her mates lost in the woods
Supply sails for Norfolk Island
Utility of the night watch
A female convict executed for house-breaking
Two natives taken
Serious charge against the assistant commissary satisfactorily cleared up
Lieutenant Dawes's excursion
The Supply returns
Transactions
August.] Of the four barracks which were begun in March 1788, and at that time intended to be finished as such, two had been for some time occupied by the detachment, two companies residing in each; a third was at the beginning of this month converted into a storehouse; and the wood-work of the fourth was taken down and applied to some other purpose; the labour and time required to finish it being deemed greater than the utility that would be derived from it as a barrack, the two that were already occupied conveniently and comfortably accommodating the detachment.
As every circumstance became of importance that might in its tendency forward or retard the day whereon the colony was to be pronounced independent of the mother-country for provisions, it was soon observed with concern, that hitherto by far a greater proportion of males than females had been produced by the animals we had brought for the purpose of breeding. This, in any other situation, might not have been so nicely remarked; but here, where a country was to be stocked, a litter of twelve pigs whereof three only were females became a subject of conversation and inquiry. Out of seven kids which had been produced in the last month, one only was a female; and many similar instances had before occurred, but no particular notice was attracted until their frequency rendered them remarkable. This circumstance excited an anxious care in every one for the preservation of such females as might be produced; and at the moment now spoken of no person entertained an idea of slaughtering one of that sort; indeed males were so abundant that fortunately there was no occasion.
On the 7th Lieutenant Ball returned from Norfolk Island, and from an unsuccessful cruise of nearly six weeks in search of the island and shoals for which he was directed to look. He sailed over the identical spot on which Mr. Shortland had fixed the latitudes and longitudes of his island and his shoal, without seeing either, and therefore concluded, that they had not been placed far enough to the northward. The error might have lain in copying the account from his log-book into his letter.
From Norfolk Island Lieutenant King wrote, that he had cleared seventeen acres of ground upon the public account, all of which were either sown or ready for sowing; that caterpillars had done much damage to some wheat which had just come up; and that he was erecting a storehouse capable of containing a large quantity of stores and provisions, and had made a visible road from Sydney Bay to Cascade Bay. The pine trees, of the utility of which such sanguine hopes had been entertained, were found to be unfit for large masts or yards, being shakey or rotten at thirty or forty feet from the butt; the wood was so brittle that it would not make a good oar, and so porous that the water soaked through the planks of a boat which had been built of it. Mr. King also lamented their ignorance of the proper mode of preparing the flax plant, which rendered it useless to them. A single pod of cotton had been found on the island, and a tree had been discovered, the bark of which was strong, and of a texture like cotton. A species of bird also had been met with, which burrowed in the ground, and had been seen in such numbers about the summit of Mount Pitt, the highest hill on the island, that they were contemplated as a resource in any future season of distress, should they be found to visit the island at stated periods, and to deposit their eggs on it. Mr. King spoke well of the general behaviour of the subjects of his little government since the detection of their late scheme to overturn it.
From the frequent commission of offences in this settlement and at Rose Hill, where scarcely a night passed but complaint was made on the following morning of a garden being robbed, or a house broken into, so favourable a report could not be given of the general conduct of the people. The frequency of these enormities had become so striking, that it appeared absolutely necessary to devise some plan which might put a stop to an evil that was every day increasing. The convicts who were employed in making bricks, living in huts by themselves on the spot where their work was performed, were suspected of being the perpetrators of most of the offences committed at Sydney; and orders had been given, forbidding, under pain of punishment, their being seen in town after sunset. These depredations continuing, however, a convict of the name of Harris presented to the judge-advocate a proposal for establishing a night-watch, to be selected from among the convicts, with authority to secure all persons of that description who should be found straggling from the huts at improper hours. This proposal being submitted to the governor, and the plan thoroughly digested and matured, the first attempt toward a police in this settlement commenced on Saturday the 8th of August. The following are the heads of the plan:
The settlement was divided into four districts, over each of which was placed a watch consisting of three persons, one principal and two subordinate watchmen. These, being selected from among those convicts whose conduct and character had been unexceptionable since their landing, were vested with authority to patrol at all hours in the night, to visit such places as might be deemed requisite for the discovery of any felony, trespass, or misdemeanor, and to secure for examination all persons that might appear to be concerned therein; for which purpose they were directed to enter any suspected hut or dwelling or to use any other means that might appear expedient. They were required to detain and give information to the nearest guardhouse of any soldier or seaman who should be found straggling after the taptoo had been beat. They were to use their utmost endeavours to trace out offenders on receiving accounts of any depredation; and in addition to their night duty, they were directed to take cognizance of such convicts as gamed, or sold or bartered their slops or provisions, and report them for punishment. A return of all occurrences during the night was to be made to the judge-advocate; and the military were required to furnish the watch with any assistance they might be in need of, beyond what the civil power could give them. They were provided each with a short staff, to distinguish them during the night, and to denote their office in the colony; and were instructed not to receive any stipulated encouragement or reward from any individual for the conviction of offenders, but to expect that negligence or misconduct in the execution of their trust would be punished with the utmost rigour. It was to have been wished, that a watch established for the preservation of public and private property had been formed of free people, and that necessity had not compelled us, in selecting the first members of our little police, to appoint them from a body of men in whose eyes, it could not be denied, the property of individuals had never before been sacred. But there was not any choice. The military had their line of duty marked out for them, and between them and the convict there was no description of people from whom overseers or watchmen could be provided. It might, however, be supposed, that among the convicts there must be many who would feel a pride in being distinguished from their fellows, and a pride that might give birth to a returning principle of honesty. It was hoped that the convicts whom we had chosen were of this description; some effort had become necessary to detect the various offenders who were prowling about with security under cover of the night; and the convicts who had any property were themselves interested in defeating such practices. They promised fidelity and diligence, from which the scorn of their fellow-prisoners should not induce them to swerve, and began with a confidence of success the duty which they had themselves offered to undertake.
The Sirius, on being closely inspected and surveyed by her own carpenter and the carpenter of the Supply, was found to be so much weakened, that the repairs which were requisite to put her in a state fit to encounter the storms of this coast would require the labour of four men for six months and twenty-four days, not including Sundays in the calculation. This was unfortunate; the resources of a king's yard were not to be found in the careening cove in Port Jackson; people who looked forward beyond the event of the morrow began to think that her services might be wanted before she could be in a condition to render them; and it was considered a matter of the utmost moment, to bestow the labour that she required in as little time and with as much skill as the circumstances of our situation would admit.
12th.] Such attentions as were within our power were shown to the anniversary of his royal highness the Prince of Wales's birthday; and although the table of our festivity was not crowned with luxuries or delicacies, yet the glass that was consecrated on that occasion to his royal highness's name was in no part of the British dominions accompanied with more sincere wishes for his happiness.
On the 20th, Daniel Gordon, a convict, was brought to trial for stealing a quantity of provisions and clothes, the property of persons employed by the lieutenant-governor at some ground which he had in cultivation near the settlement. The prisoner appearing wild and incoherent on being brought before the court, the principal surgeon of the settlement was directed to examine him, and giving it as his opinion, upon oath, that the man's pulse very strongly indicated either a delirium or intoxication, his trial was put off until the following morning, when, the same appearances of wildness continuing on him, witnesses were examined as to the tenor of his conduct during his being in confinement for the offence; and the court were of opinion from their testimony, 'That the prisoner was not in a state of mind to be put upon his trial.' He was therefore placed under the care of the surgeon at the hospital, and the court broke up.
It was generally supposed, that a firm belief that his offence would be fixed upon him occasioned the derangement of intellect which appeared. He was a notorious offender, and had been once pardoned in this country under the gallows. Many of his fellow-prisoners gave him credit for the ability with which he had acted his part, and perhaps he deserved their applause; but disordered as he appeared before the court, their humanity would not suffer them to proceed against a wretch who either had not, or affected not to have, a sufficient sense of his situation.
Slops were served to the convicts during this month, and the detachment received the remainder of the shoes which they brought from England.
September.] In England some dependence had been placed on fish as a resource for the settlement, but sufficient for a general distribution had not hitherto been caught at any one time. On the 4th of this month the people belonging to the Supply had a very large haul; their seine was so full, that had they hauled it ashore it must have burst; the ropes of it were therefore made fast on shore, and the seine was suffered to lie until left dry by the tide. The fish were brought up to the settlement, and distributed among the military and convicts. A night or two after this, a fishing-boat caught about one hundred dozen of small fish; but this was precarious, and, happening after the provisions were served, no other advantage could be derived from the circumstance, than that of every man's having a fish-meal.
On the 10th a criminal court of judicature was assembled for the trial of Henry Wright, a private soldier in the detachment, for a rape on a child of eight years of age; of which heinous offence being found guilty, he received sentence to die; but being recommended by the court to the governor, his excellency was pleased to pardon him, on condition of his residing, during the term of his natural life, at Norfolk Island. This was an offence that did not seem to require an immediate example; the chastity of the female part of the settlement had never been so rigid, as to drive men to so desperate an act; and it was believed, that beside the wretch in question there was not in the colony a man of any description who would have attempted it.
On the 12th, the butter, which had hitherto been served at six ounces per week to each man in the settlement, being expended, the like quantity of sugar was directed to be issued in its stead. This was the first of the provisions brought from England which had wholly failed; and, fortunately, the failure was in an article which could be the best spared. It never had been very good, and was not, strictly speaking, a necessary of life.
A small boat belonging to a gentleman of the settlement, having been too deeply laden with cabbage-trees which had been collected in a bay down the harbour for the purpose of building, was overset on her return to the cove, by touching on a rock which lay off one of the points. There were three people in her, two of whom swam on shore; the third remained five hours on her keel, and was accidentally met with and picked up by the people of a fishing boat.
Captain Hunter, unwilling to lose any opportunity of rendering a service to the colony, while the repairs of his ship were going on, surveyed the two adjoining harbours of Broken Bay and Botany Bay; and correct charts were thus obtained of these two harbours, so admirably situated with relation to Port jackson.
The natives, who had for some time past given very little interruption, toward the end of the month attacked Henry Hacking, one of the quarter-masters of the Sirius, who, being reckoned a good shot, was allowed to shoot for the officers and ship's company. His account was, that, being in the woods, a stone was thrown at him from one of two natives whom he perceived behind him, and that on looking about he found dispersed among the trees a number that could not be less than forty. Wishing to intimidate them, he several times only presented his piece toward them; but, finding that they followed him, he at last gave them the contents, which happened to be small shot for birds. These he replaced with buckshot, and got rid of his troublesome and designing followers by discharging his piece a second time. They all made off; but some of them stumbling as they ran, he apprehended they had been wounded. This account met with more credit than could usually be allowed to such tales, as the person who gave it was held in great estimation by the officers of his ship both as a man and as a seaman.
Mr. Palmer, the purser of the Sirius, having occasion to cut timber in a cove down the harbour, was visited by some natives, who took an opportunity of concealing two of his axes in the bushes. On his missing the implements, the natives went off in some consternation, leaving two children behind them, whom Mr. Palmer detained, and would have brought up to the settlement, had not their friends ransomed them with the property that had been stolen.
At Rose Hill, where the corn promised well, an Emu had been killed, which stood seven feet high, was a female, and when opened was found to contain exactly fifty eggs.
October.] The launch that was begun in May last by the carpenter of the Supply, being completed, was put into the water the 5th of October. From the quantity of wood used in her construction she appeared to be a mere bed of timber, and, when launched, was named by the convicts, with an happiness that is sometimes visible in the allusions of the lower order of people, The Rose Hill Packet*. She was very soon employed in transporting provisions to Rose Hill, and going up with the tide of flood, at the top of high water, passed very well over the flats at the upper part of the harbour.
[* She was afterwards generally known by the name of The Lump, a word more strictly applying to her size and construction.]
Our enemies the rats, who worked unseen, and attacked us where we were most vulnerable, being again observed in numbers about the provision store, the commissary caused the provisions to be moved out of one store into another; for, alas! at this period they could be all contained in one. These pernicious vermin were found to be very numerous, and the damage they had done much greater than the state of our stores would admit. Eight casks of flour were at one time found wholly destroyed. From the store, such as escaped the hunger of the different dogs that were turned loose upon them flew to the gardens of individuals, where they rioted upon the Indian corn which was growing, and did considerable mischief
The presence of a captain being no longer deemed necessary at Rose Hill, the military guard there for the protection of the stores was reduced to a subaltern officer, and a proportionate number of privates. Mr. Dodd, who had for some time been authorized by the governor to inflict corporal punishment on the convicts for idleness, rioting, or other misdemeanors, had obtained such an influence over them, that military coercion was not so necessary as when the settlement was first established. Of this person, the officers who had been on duty at Rose Hill from time to time gave the most favourable reports, speaking of him as one in every respect qualified to execute the trust which had been reposed in him by the governor.
During this month a gang of convicts were employed at Sydney in forming a convenient road from the hospital to the magazine and observatory on the point; and a small hut, for the reception of a corporal's guard at the hospital, was erected.
Of the few people who died in October, (one soldier, three women, and one child), one was an unhappy woman who had been sent on board in a state of insanity, and who had remained in that condition until the day of her death; she and another of the three women died in child-bed; and the soldier was carried off by a disorder which he brought with him into the country. 12 These circumstances tended to establish the good opinion which was at first formed of the salubrity of the climate of New South Wales.
November.] This month opened with a serious, but prudent and necessary alteration in our provisions. The ration which had hitherto been issued was, on the first of the month, reduced to two thirds of every species, spirits excepted, which continued as usual. This measure was calculated to guard against accidents; and the necessity of it was obvious to every one, from the great uncertainty as to the time when a supply might arrive from England, and from the losses which had been and still were occasioned by rats in the provision store. Two years provisions were landed with us in the colony: we had been within two months of that time disembarked, and the public store had been aided only by a small surplus of the provisions which remained of what had been furnished by the contractor for the passage, and the supply of four months flour which had been received by the Sirius from the Cape of Good Hope. All this did not produce such an abundance as would justify any longer continuance of the full ration; and although it was reasonable to suppose, as we had not hitherto received any supplies, that ships would arrive before our present stock was exhausted; yet, if the period of distress should ever arrive, the consciousness that we had early foreseen and strove to guard against its arrival would certainly soften the bitterness of our reflections; and, guarding thus against the worst, that worst providentially might never happen. The governor, whose humanity was at all times conspicuous, directed that no alteration should he made in the ration to be issued to the women. They were already upon two thirds of the man's allowance; and many of them either had children who could very well have eaten their own and part of the mother's ration, or they had children at the breast; and although they did not labour, yet their appetites were never so delicate as to have found the full ration too much, had it been issued to them. The like reduction was enforced afloat as well as on shore, the ships' companies of the Sirius and Supply being put to two thirds of the allowance usually issued to the king's ships. This, as a deduction of the eighths allowed by custom to the purser was made from their ration, was somewhat less than what was to be issued in the settlement.
Thus opened the month of November in this settlement; where, though we had not the accompanying gloom and vapour of our own climate to render it terrific to our minds, yet we had that before us, in the midst of all our sunshine, which gave it the complexion of the true November so inimical to our countrymen.
It was soon observed, that of the provisions issued at this ration on the Saturday the major part of the convicts had none left on the Tuesday night; it was therefore ordered, that the provisions should be served in future on the Saturdays and Wednesdays. By these means, the days which would otherwise pass in hunger, or in thieving from the few who were more provident, would be divided, and the people themselves be more able to perform the labour which was required from them. Overseers and married men were not included in this order.
On the 7th Captain Hunter brought the Sirius into the cove completely repaired. She had been strengthened with riders placed within board, her copper had been carefully examined, and she was now in every respect fit for sea. Previous to her quitting the careening cove, Mr. Hill, one of the master's mates, having had some business at Sydney, was landed on his return early in the morning on the north shore, opposite Sydney Cove, from whence the walk to the ship was short; but he was never afterwards heard of. Parties were sent day after day in quest of him for several days. Guns were fired from the Sirius every four hours, night and day, but all to no effect. He had met with some fatal accident, which deprived a wife of the pleasurable prospect of ever seeing him return to her and to his friends. He had once before missed his way; and it was reported, when his loss was confirmed, that he declared on the fatal morning, when stepping out of the boat, that he expected to lose himself again for a day or two. His conjecture was more than confirmed; he lost himself for ever, and thus added one to the number of those unfortunate persons who had perished in the woods of this country.
On the 11th the Supply sailed for Norfolk Island, having on board provisions and six male and eight female convicts for that colony. She was to stop at Lord Howe Island, to endeavour to procure turtle for this settlement; a supply of which, in its present situation, would have been welcomed, not as a luxury, but as a necessary of life.
The night-watch was found of infinite utility. The commission of crimes, since their institution, had been evidently less frequent, and they were instrumental in bringing forward for punishment several offenders who would otherwise have escaped. The fear and detestation in which they were held by their fellow-prisoners was one proof of their assiduity in searching for offences and in bringing them to light; and it possibly might have been asserted with truth, that many streets in the metropolis of London were not so well guarded and watched as the small, but rising town of Sydney, in New South Wales.
By their activity, a woman (a female convict of the name of Ann Davis alias Judith Jones), was apprehended for breaking into the house of Robert Sidaway (a convict) in the daytime, and stealing several articles of wearing apparel thereout. The criminal court being assembled, she was tried and found guilty. On receiving sentence to die, she pleaded being quick with child; but twelve of the discreetest women among the convicts, all of whom had been mothers of children, being impanelled as a jury of matrons, they pronounced that she was not pregnant; on which she was executed the Monday following, acknowledging at that fatal moment which generally gives birth and utterance to truth, that she was about to suffer justly, and that an attempt which she made, when put on her defence, to criminate another person (a woman whose character was so notorious that she hoped to establish her own credit and innocence upon her infamy), as well as her plea of pregnancy, were advanced merely for the purpose of saving her life. She died generally reviled and unpitied by the people of her own description.
The summer was observed to be the chief season of fish. A fishing-boat belonging to the colony had so many fish in the seine, that had it not burst at the moment of landing, it was imagined that a sufficiency would have been taken to have served the settlement for a day; as it was, a very considerable quantity was brought in; and not long after a boat belonging to the Sirius caught forty-seven of the large fish which obtained among us the appellation of Light Horse Men, from the peculiar conformation of the bone of the head, which gave the fish the appearance of having on a light-horse man's helmet.
The governor, after the death of the native who was carried off by the smallpox in May last, never had lost sight of a determination to procure another the first favourable opportunity. A boat had several times gone down the harbour for that purpose; but without succeeding, until the 25th of this month, when the first lieutenant of the Sirius, accompanied by the master, fortunately secured two natives, both men, and brought them up to the settlement without any accident. Being well known to the children, through their means every assurance was given them of their perfect safety in our possession. They were taken up to the governor's, the place intended for their future residence, where such restraint was laid upon their persons as was judged requisite for their security.
The assurances of safety which were given them, and the steps which were taken to keep them in a state of security, were not perfectly satisfactory to the elder of the two; and he secretly determined to take the first opportunity which offered of giving his attendants no further trouble upon his account. The negligence of his keeper very soon gave him the opportunity he desired; and he made his escape, taking with him into the woods the fetter which had been rivetted to his ankle, and which every one, who knew the circumstance, imagined he would never be able to remove. His companion would have joined him in his flight, but fear detained him a few minutes too late, and he was seized while tremblingly alive to the joyful prospect of escaping.
During the month of November a brick house was begun on the east side of the cove for the judge-advocate. The huts which were got up on our first landing were slight and temporary; every shower of rain washed a portion of the clay from between the interstices of the cabbage-tree of which they were constructed; their covering was never tight; their size was necessarily small and inconvenient; and although we had not hitherto been so fortunate as to discover limestone any where near the settlement, yet to occupy a brick house put together with mortar formed of the clay of the country, and covered with tiles, became in point of comparative comfort and convenience an object of some importance.
December.] Among the various business which came before the magistrates at their weekly meetings, was one which occupied much of their time and attention. The convicts who were employed about the provision store informed the commissary, by letter, that from certain circumstances, they had reason to accuse Mr. Zachariah Clark, his assistant, of embezzling the public provisions. A complaint of such a nature, as well on account of its importance to the settlement, as of its consequence to the person accused, called for an immediate enquiry; and the judge-advocate and Captain Hunter lost no time in bringing forward the necessary investigation. The convicts charged Mr. Clark with having made at different times, and applied to his own use, a considerable over-draught of every species of provisions, and of the liquor which was in store. A dread of these circumstances being one day discovered by others, when the blame of concealment might involve them in a suspicion of participation, induced them to step forward with the charge. The suspicious appearances, however, were accounted for by Mr. Clark much to the satisfaction of the magistrates under whose consideration they came. He stated, that expecting to be employed in this country, he had brought out with him large quantities of provisions, wine, rum, draught and bottled porter, all of which he generally kept at the store; that when parties have applied to him for provisions or spirits at an hour when the store was shut, he had frequently supplied them from his own case, or stock which he had for present use in his tent or in his house, and afterwards repaid himself from the store; and that being ill with the scurvy for several months after his arrival, he did not use any salt provisions, which gave him a considerable credit for such articles at the store: from all which circumstances the convicts who accused him might, as they were unknown to them, be induced to imagine that he was taking up more than his ration from time to time.
With Mr. Clark's ample and public acquittal from this accusation, a commendation equally public was given to the convicts, who, noticing the apparent over-draught of spirits and provisions, and ignorant at the same time of the causes which occasioned it, had taken measures to have it explained.
From the peculiarity of our situation, there was a sort of sacredness about our store; and its preservation pure and undefiled was deemed as necessary as the chastity of Caesar's wife. With us, it would not bear even suspicion.
In the course of this month the harvest was got in; the ground in cultivation at Rose Hill produced upwards of two hundred bushels Of wheat, about thirty-five bushels of barley, and a small quantity of oats and Indian corn; all of which was intended to be reserved for feed. At Sydney, the spot of ground called the Governor's Farm had been sown only with barley, and produced about twenty-five bushels.
A knowledge of the interior parts of this extensive country was anxiously desired by every one; but the difficulty of attaining it, and the various employments in which we had all been necessarily engaged, had hitherto prevented any material researches being made. The governor had penetrated to the westward as far as Richmond Hill, perhaps between fifty and sixty miles inland; but beyond that distance all was a blank. Early in this month Lieutenant Dawes with a small party, taking with them just as much provisions as they could conveniently carry, set off on an attempt to reach the western mountains by and from the banks of the fresh water river, first seen, some time since, by Captain Tench, and supposed to be a branch of the Hawkesbury. From this excursion he returned on the ninth day, without accomplishing his design, meeting with nothing, after quitting the river, but ravines that were nearly inaccessible. He had, notwithstanding the danger and difficulty of getting on through such a country, reached within eleven miles of the mountains, by computation. During his toilsome march he met with nothing very remarkable, except the impressions of the cloven feet of an animal differing from other cloven feet by the great width of the division in each. He was not fortunate enough to see the animal that had made them.
In this journey Lieutenant Dawes's line of march, unfortunately and unpleasantly for him, happened to lie, nearly from his setting out, across a line of high and steep rocky precipices, which required much caution in descending, as well as labour in ascending. Perhaps an open country, which might have led him readily and conveniently to the point he proposed to attain, was lying at no great distance from him either to his right or left. To seek for that, however, might have required more time than his stock of provisions would have admitted; and he was compelled to return through the same unprofitable country which he had passed.
On the 21st, between ten and eleven o'clock at night, the Supply returned from Norfolk Island, having been absent six weeks within a day. From thence Lieutenant King wrote that he expected his harvest would produce from four to six months flour for all his inhabitants, exclusive of a reserve of double feed for twenty acres of ground. Beside this promising appearance, he had ten acres in cultivation with Indian corn, which looked very well. His gardens had suffered much by the grub worm and from a want of rain, of which they had had scarcely any since the 23rd of September last. The ground which was cleared for the crown amounted to about twenty-eight acres, and he was busied in preparations for building a redoubt on an eminence named by him Mount George.
The Supply, in her visit at Lord Howe Island, turned eighteen turtle; several of which unluckily dying before she reached Norfolk Island, she could leave only four there, and but three survived the short voyage thence to this place.
Several thefts having been lately committed by the convicts, and the offenders discovered by the vigilance of the members of our new police, several of them were tried before the criminal court of juidicature. Caesar the black, whose situation on Garden Island had been some time back rendered more eligible, by being permitted to work without irons, found means to make his escape, with a mind insensible alike to kindness and to punishment, taking with him a canoe which lay there for the convenience of the other people employed on the island, together with a week's provisions belonging to them; and in a visit which he made them a few nights after in his canoe, he took off an iron pot, a musket, and some ammunition.
The working convicts at Sydney had lately been principally employed in constructing two convenient kitchens and ovens for the use of the detachment, adjoining to the quarters; building a house for the judge-advocate; forming roads either in or leading to the town; and removing the provisions from the old thatched storehouse to that in the marine quarters, which, by being covered in with tiles, was not so liable to an accident by fire, nor likely to prove so great an harbour for rats, to guard against whom it had become necessary to take as many precautions as against any other enemy. They, however, in defiance of every care which was taken to shut them out, when the provisions were removed, found means, by working under ground, to get in; and as it was now a matter of much moment to preserve every ounce of provisions that belonged to us, they were all taken out, and restowed with an attention suitable to their important value.
At Rose Hill, where as yet there was not any night-watch established, petty thefts and depredations were frequently committed, particularly on the wheat as it ripened. The bakehouse also was robbed of a quantity of flour by a person unknown. These offences were generally attributed to the reduction which had taken place in the ration of provisions; and every one dreaded how much the commission of them might be increased, if accident or delay should render a still greater reduction necessary.
Mr. Dodd, the superintendant at that settlement, a few days before Christmas, cut and sent down a cabbage which weighed twenty-six pounds. The other vegetables productions of his garden, which was by no means a rich mould, were plentiful and luxuriant.
Some people who had been out with a gun from Rose Hill brought in with them, on their return, a tinder-box, to which chance conducted them in a thick brush distinguished by the name of the New Brush, about six miles from the settlement. This article was known to have belonged to the two unfortunate soldiers who had been unaccounted for since last April, and who, in great probability, found there a miserable period to their existence. They also picked up in the same brush a piece of linen, said to have formed part of a petticoat which belonged to Anne Smith, a female convict who absconded a few days after our landing in the country. This might have been carried thither and dropped by some natives in their way through the brush; but it gave a strong colour to the supposition of her having likewise perished, by some means or other, in the woods.
A convict made a free settler
A pleasing delusion
Extraordinary supply of fish
Caesar's narrative
Another convict wounded by the natives
The Supply arrives from Norfolk Island
A large number of settlers sent thither on board the Sirius and Supply
Heavy rains
Scarcity of provisions increasing in an alarming degree
Lieutenant Maxwell's insanity
News brought of the loss of the Sirius
Allowance of provisions still further reduced
The Supply sent to Batavia for relief
Robberies frequent and daring
An old man dies of hunger
Rose Hill
Salt and fishing-lines made
The native escapes
Transactions
1790.]
January.] Early in the new year the Supply sailed again for Norfolk Island with twenty-two male and two female convicts, and one child; Lieutenant King having in his last letters intimated, that he could very well find employment for a greater number of people than he then had under his orders. With those convicts and some stores she sailed on the 7th, and on her return was to touch at Lord Howe island to procure turtle.
Of the convicts the period of whose sentences of transportation had expired, and of whom mention was made in the transactions of July last, one, who signified a wish of becoming a settler, had been sent up to Rose Hill by the governor; where his excellency, having only waited to learn with certainty that he had become a free man before he gave him a grant of land, caused two acres of ground to be cleared of the timber which stood on them, and a small hut to be built for him. This man had been bred to the business of a farmer, and during his residence in this country had shown a strong inclination to be industrious, and to return to honest habits and pursuits. Rewarding him, therefore, was but holding out encouragement to such good dispositions. The governor had, however, another object in view, beside a wish to hold him up as a deserving character: he was desirous of trying, by his means, in what time an industrious active man, with certain assistance, would be enabled to support himself in this country as a settler; and for that purpose, in addition to what he caused to be done for him at first, he furnished him with the tools and implements of husbandry necessary for cultivating his ground, with a proportion of grain to sow it, and a small quantity of live stock to begin with. He took possession of his ground the 21st of November 1789, and under some disadvantages. An opinion had prevailed, and had been pretty generally disseminated, that a man could not live in this country; and in addition to this discouragement, although he still received a ration from the public store, yet it was not a ration that bore any proportion to the labour which his situation required from him. The man himself, however, resolved to be industrious, and to surmount as well as he was able whatever difficulties might lie in his way.
The flour which had been brought from England did not serve much beyond the beginning of this month, and that imported from the Cape now supplied its place. Every one began to look forward with much anxiety to the arrival of supplies from England; and as it was reasonable to conclude that every day might bring them on the coast, Captain Hunter, accompanied by Mr. Worgan, the surgeon of the Sirius, and Mr. White, with six or eight seamen, having chosen a spot proper for their purpose, erected a flagstaff on the South Head of this harbour, whence, on the appearance of a ship in the offing, a signal might be made, as well to convey the wished-for information to the settlement, as to serve as a mark for the stranger. An hut was built for their accommodation, and this little establishment was of such importance, that our walks were daily directed to a spot whence it could be seen; thus fondly indulging the delusion, that the very circumstance of looking out for a sail would bring one into view.
A sufficient quantity of fish having been taken one night in this month, to admit the serving of two pounds to each man, woman, and child belonging to the detachment, the governor directed, that a boat should in future be employed three times in the week to fish for the public; and that the whole quantity caught should be issued at the above rate to every person in turn. This allowance was in addition to the ration of provisions; and was received with much satisfaction several times during the month.
Caesar, after his escape from and subsequent visit at Garden Island, found his way up to Rose Hill, whence he was brought on the 30th, very much wounded by some natives whom he had met with in the woods. Being fearful of severe punishment for some of his late offences, he reported, on being brought in, that he had fallen in with our cattle which had been so long lost; that they were increased by two calves; that they seemed to be under the care of eight or ten natives, who attended them closely while they grazed; and that, on his attempting to drive the cattle before him, he was wounded by another party of the natives. The circumstance of his being wounded was the only part of his story that met with any credit, and that could not well be contradicted, as he had several spear wounds about him in different parts of his body; but every thing else was looked upon as a fabrication (and that not well contrived) to avert the lash which he knew hung over him. He was well known to have as small a share of veracity as of honesty. His wounds however requiring care and rest, he was secured, and placed under the surgeon's care at the hospital.
Information was also received at this time from Rose Hill, that a convict who had been employed to strike the sting ray, with another, on the flats, having gone on shore, engaged in some quarrel with the natives, who took all his clothes from him, severely wounded, and would inevitably have killed him, but for the humane, friendly, and disinterested interference of one of their own women, who happened to be present. This accident, and many others of the same nature, could not have happened, had the orders which he had received, not to land upon any account, been attended to.
The bricklayers, having finished the judge-advocate's house, were employed in building a dispensary on the west side contiguous to the hospital, the medicines and chirurgical instruments being much exposed to damps in the place where they had hitherto been necessarily kept.
Garden robberies were frequent, notwithstanding the utmost care and vigilance were exerted to prevent them. A rainy tempestuous night always afforded a cloak for the thief, and was generally followed in the morning by some one complaining of his or her garden having been stripped of all its produce.
February.] The first signal from the flagstaff at the South Head was displayed on the 10th of February; and though every imagination first turned toward the expected stranger, yet happening about the time at which the Supply was expected from Norfolk Island, conjecture soon fixed on the right object; and the temporary suspence was put an end to, by word being brought up to the settlement, that the Supply, unable to get into Port Jackson, had borne up for Botany Bay, in which harbour she anchored in the dusk of the evening. The next morning the letters which she had brought were received. Lieutenant King wrote, that his people continued healthy, and his settlement went on well. His wheat had returned twenty fold, notwithstanding he had had much dry weather. He had relinquished his intention of throwing up a redoubt on Mount George; but, instead of that work, had employed his people in constructing a stockade of piles round his house, inclosing an oblong square of one hundred feet by one hundred and forty, within which he purposed erecting storehouses, and a barrack for the military. He stated, that the convicts under his orders had in general very good gardens, and that many of them would have a very large produce of Indian corn.
The Supply having in her way to Norfolk Island touched at Lord Howe Island, Lieutenant Ball left the gunner and a small party to turn turtle, but they met with no success; so that no dependance was to be placed on that island for any material relief. The gunner examined the island, and found fresh water in cavities, but not in any current.
The Supply could not get round from Botany Bay until the 12th, when she came to anchor in the cove, whence she had been absent just five weeks.
Lieutenant King having constantly written in high terms of the richness of the soil of Norfolk Island, the governor, on comparing the situation of the convicts there and in this settlement, where their gardens had not that fertility to boast of, and where the ration from the store was with too many hastily devoured, and with most derived but an uncertain and scanty aid from any other source, determined, and about the middle of the month announced his determination, to detach thither a large body of convicts, male and female, together with two companies of the marines. Some immediate advantages were expected to be derived from this measure; the garden ground that would be left by those who embarked would be possessed by those who remained, while the former would instantly on their arrival at Norfolk Island participate in the produce of luxuriant gardens, in a more constant supply of fish, and in the assistance that was occasionally obtained from the birds which settled on Mount Pitt.
At the same time that this intention was made public, the day of their departure was fixed. The whole were to embark on board the Sirius and the Supply in the beginning of the following month, and were, if no ship arrived from England to prevent them, to sail on the 5th. Should, unfortunately, the necessity of adopting the measure then exist, the Sirius was to proceed to China directly from Norfolk Island to procure a supply of provisions for the colony. China was chosen, under an idea that salt provisions were to be obtained there, and that it was preferable to sending to any of the islands in those seas, or to the Cape of Good Hope at this season of the year, when the Sirius and her crew would have had to encounter the cold and boisterous weather of a winter's passage thither.
As the numbers on Norfolk Island would be considerably increased by the arrival of this detachment from hence, the governor judged the presence of Major Ross necessary there, as lieutenant-governor of the territory. Lieutenant King was to be recalled and return to this settlement.
Preparations were immediately set on foot for the embarkation of the marines and other persons who were to quit this colony. It had been a part of the first determinations on this business, that the Sirius should, as I have mentioned, proceed directly from Norfolk Island on her voyage to China; but Captain Hunter having represented the absolute necessity he should be under of touching somewhere to wood and water, owing to the number he should have on board, that idea was given up, and Captain Hunter was directed to return with the Sirius to this port for the above purposes of wooding and watering. An additional reason offered itself to influence this determination; it was hoped, that before she could return, the arrival of the expected supplies would have rendered the voyage altogether unnecessary; and it was but reasonable to suppose that this would happen. The governor had, in all his dispatches, uniformly declared the strong necessity there was of having at least two years provisions in store for some time to come; and as this information, together with an exact account of the situation of the colony, had been transmitted by seven different conveyances, if only one had arrived safe, it could not reasonably be doubted that supplies would be immediately dispatched. From the length of time too which had elapsed since the departure of the last ships* that sailed from hence direct for England (full fifteen months), it was as reasonable to suppose that they might arrive within the time that the Sirius would be absent.
[* The Golden Grove and the Fishburn sailed from this port the 19th of November 1788, intending to make their passage round by Cape Horn, to which the season was most favourable.]
The month passed in the arrangements and preparations requisite on this occasion, to which the weather was extremely unfavourable, heavy rains, with gales of wind, prevailing nearly the whole time. The rain came down in torrents, filling up every trench and cavity which had been dug about the settlement, and causing much damage to the miserable mud tenements which were occupied by the convicts. By these rains, a pit which had been dug for the purpose of procuring clay to plaister the walls of a hut, was filled with water; and a boy upwards of two years of age, belonging to one of the female convicts, falling into it, was drowned. The surgeons tried, but without success, to save his life, using the methods practised by the Humane Society. Yet bad as the weather was, several gardens were robbed, and, as at this time they abounded with melons and pumpkins, they became the object of depredation in common with other productions of the garden.
A brick building, fifty-nine feet in front, designed for a guard-house, of which the foundation had been laid a few days before the heavy rains commenced, suffered much by their continuance. The situation of this building was on the east side of the cove, at the upper part, contiguous to the bridge over the run of water, and convenient for detaching assistance to any part of the place where it might be requisite.
On the 1st of March a reduction in the allowance of spirits took place; the half pint per diem, which had hitherto been issued to each man who was entitled to receive it, was to be discontinued, and only the half of that allowance served. Thus was the gradual decrease in our stores followed by a diminution of our daily comforts and necessaries.
One immediate consequence, and that an evil one, was the effect of the intended embarkation for Norfolk Island. It being found that great quantities of stock were killed, an order was immediately given to prevent the further destruction of an article so essential in our present situation, until some necessary regulations could be published; but the officers and people who were about to embark were not included in this prohibition. The mention of future regulations in this order instantly begat an opinion among the convicts, that on the departure of the ships all the live stock in the colony would be called in, or that the owners would be deprived of the benefits which might result from the possession of it. Under colour, therefore, of its belonging to those who were exempted in the late order, nearly all the stock in the settlement was in the course of a few nights destroyed; a wound being thereby given to the independence of the colony that could not easily be salved, and whose injurious effects time and much attention alone could remove.
The expected supplies not having arrived, on the 3rd, the two companies of marines with their officers and the colours of the corps embarked on board the Sirius and the Supply. With them also embarked the lieutenant-governor, and Mr. Considen the senior assistant surgeon of the settlement. On the day following, one hundred and sixteen male and sixty-eight female convicts, with twenty-seven children, were put on board; among the male convicts the governor had sent the troublesome and incorrigible Caesar, on whom he had bestowed a pardon. With these also was sent, though of a very different description, a person whose exemplary conduct had raised him from the situation of a convict to the privileges of a free man. John Irving had since our landing in the country been employed as an assistant at the hospital. He was bred a surgeon, and in no instance whatever, since the commission of the offence for which he was transported, had he given cause of complaint. He was now sent to Norfolk Island, to act as an assistant to the medical gentlemen there.
On the 5th the Sirius and the Supply left the cove, but did not get to sea until the following day, when at the close of the evening they were scarcely to be discerned from the South Head. At the little post at this place Captain Hunter left the gunner, a midshipman, and six of the Sirius's people. Mr. Maxwell, one of her lieutenants, having been for a considerable time past in a melancholy and declining way, and his disorder pronounced by the surgeons to be insanity, he was discharged from the ship, and had taken up his residence on shore under the care of the surgeon, with proper people who were left from the ship to attend him. This was the second officer whose situation in the Sirius it became necessary to have filled. Lieutenant King, the commandant of Norfolk Island, had for some time been discharged from the ship's books; and Mr. Newton Fowell, a young gentleman of the Sirius's quarter-deck, being deemed well qualified, was appointed by the governor (as the naval commanding officer) to succeed him. To fill the vacancy occasioned by Mr. Maxwell's unfortunate state of health, Mr. Henry Waterhouse, a young gentleman of promising abilities, was taken from the quarter-deck. Both these appointments were to wait the confirmation of the lords commissioners of the admiralty.
Immediately after the departure of these ships, the governor directed his attention to the regulation of the people who were left at Sydney, and to the preservation of the stock in the colony. For these purposes, he himself visited the different huts and gardens whose tenants had just quitted them, distributing them to such convicts as were either in miserable hovels, or without any shelter at all. It was true, that by this arrangement the idle found themselves provided for by the labour of many who had been industrious; but they were at the same time assured, that unless they kept in good cultivation the gardens which they were allowed to possess, they would be turned out from the comforts of a good hut, to live under a rock or a tree. That they might have time for this purpose, the afternoon of Wednesday and the whole of Saturday in each week were given to them. Much room was made every where by the numbers who had embarked (in all two hundred and eighty-one persons); the military quarters had a deserted aspect; and the whole settlement appeared as if famine had already thinned it of half its numbers. The little society that was in the place was broken up, and every man seemed left to brood in solitary silence over the dreary prospect before him.
With respect to the stock, his excellency directed, that no hogs under three months old should be killed, nor were any to be butchered without information being first given at headquarters.
Those who bred poultry were left at liberty to dispose of it in such manner as they thought proper; and the commissary was directed to purchase for the use of the hospital such live stock as the owners were desirous of selling, complying with the above regulations, and receiving one shilling a pound as the price.
Some provisions which yet remained in the old large thatched store were removed for greater security into the store in the marine quarters. It was strongly suspected, that an attempt had been made to obtain some part of these provisions in the night; and some convicts were examined before the judge-advocate on suspicion of having taken some flour from the store; but nothing appeared that could materially affect them. The provisions, when all collected together under one roof and into one view, afforded but a melancholy reflection; it was well that we had even them.
On the 27th of the month, the long-expected signal not having been displayed, it became necessary to put the colony upon a still shorter ration of provisions. It was a painful but a necessary duty. The governor directed that the provisions should in future be served daily; for which purpose the store was to be opened from one to three in the afternoon. The ration for the week was to consist of four pounds of flour, two pounds and a half of pork, and one pound and a half of rice, and these were to be issued to every person in the settlement without distinction; but as the public labour must naturally be affected by this reduction, the working hours were in future to be from sunrise, with a small interval for breakfast, until one o'clock: the afternoons were to be allowed the people to receive their provisions and work in their gardens. These alterations in the ration and in the hours of labour, however, were not to commence until the 1st of the following month.
At Rose Hill similar regulations were made by the governor. The garden ground was enlarged; those who were in bad huts were placed in better; and every thing was said that could stimulate them to be industrious. This, with a few exceptions, appeared to be the principal labour both there and at Sydney; and the nightwatch were called upon by the common interest to be more than ever active and sedulous in their efforts to protect public and private property; for robberies of gardens and houses were daily and nightly committed. Damage was also received from the little stock which remained alive; the owners, not having wherewith to feed them, were obliged to turn them loose to browse among the grass and shrubs, or turn up the ground for the fern-root; and as they wandered without any one to prevent their doing mischief, they but too often found an easy passage over fences and through barriers which were now grown weak and perishing. It was however ordered, that the stock should be kept up during the night, and every damage that could be proved to have been received during that time was to be made good by the owners of the stock that might be caught trespassing; or the animals themselves were to be forfeited.
The carpenters were employed in preparing a roof for a new storehouse, those which were first erected being now decaying, and having been always insecure. It was never expected to get up a building of one hundred feet in front, which this was designed to be, upon so reduced a ration as the present; but while the people did labour, it was proper to turn that little labour to the public account.
The working gangs being now so much reduced by the late embarkation, the hoy was employed in bringing the timber necessary for this building from the coves where it was cut down and deposited for that purpose. This vessel, when unemployed for public services, was given to the officers, and by them sent down the harbour to procure cabbage-tree for their stock, in the preservation and maintenance of which every one felt an immediate and anxious concern.
The weather had been very wet during this month; torrents of rain again laid every place under water; many little habitations, which had withstood the inundations of the last month, now suffered considerably; several chimneys fell in; but this was owing, perhaps, as much to their being built by job or taskwork (which the workmen hurried over in general to get a day or two to themselves) as to the heavy rains.
April.] The reduced ration and the change in the working hours commenced, as was directed, on the 1st of this month; much time was not consumed at the store, and the people went away to dress the scanty allowance which they had received.
Attention to our religious duties was never omitted. Divine service was performed in one of our emptied storehouses on the morning of the next day, being Good Friday; and the convicts were recommended to employ the remainder of it in their gardens. But, notwithstanding the evident necessity that existed for every man's endeavouring to assist himself, very few were observed to be so profitably occupied.
As every saving that could be made in the article of provisions was of consequence in the present situation of the stores, it was directed on the 3rd, that such fish as should in future be taken by the public boats should be issued at the store, in the proportion of ten pounds of fish to two pounds and a half of pork; and one hundred and fifty pounds of fish, which had been brought up before the issuing of provisions commenced on that day, were served out agreeable to that order.
Mr. Maxwell, whose disorder at times admitted of his going out alone, was fortunately brought up from the lower part of the harbour, where he had passed nearly two days, without sustenance, in rowing from one side to the other, in a small boat by himself. He was noticed by a sergeant who had been fishing, and who observed him rowing under the dangerous rocks of the middle-head, where he must soon have been dashed to pieces, but for his fortunate interposition. After this escape he was more narrowly watched.
While occupied in listening to the tale, of his distresses, the Supply returned from Norfolk Island, with an account that was of itself almost sufficient to have deranged the strongest intellect among us. A load of accumulated evils seemed bursting at once upon our heads. The ships that were expected with supplies were still to be anxiously looked for; and the Sirius, which was to have gone in quest of relief to our distresses, was lost upon the reef at Norfolk Island, on the 19th of last month. This was a blow which, as it was unexpected, fell with increased weight, and on every one the whole weight seemed to have fallen.
This untoward accident happened in the following manner:
Captain Hunter was extremely fortunate in having a short passage hence to Norfolk Island, arriving there in seven days after he sailed. The soldiers, and a considerable part of the convicts, were immediately landed in Cascade Bay, which happened at the time to be the leeward side of the island. Bad weather immediately ensued, and for several days, the provisions could not be landed, so high was the surf occasioned by it. This delay, together with a knowledge that the provisions on the island were not adequate to the additional numbers that were now to be victualled, caused him to be particularly anxious to get the provisions on shore. The bad weather had separated the Sirius from the Supply; but meeting with a favourable slant of wind on the 19th, Captain Hunter gained the island from which he had been driven, and stood for Sydney Bay, at the south end of it, where he found the Supply; and it being signified by signal from the shore (where they could form the best judgment) that the landing might be effected with any boat, he brought to in the windward part of the bay, with the ship's head off the shore, got out the boats, and loaded them with provisions. When the boats had put off from the ship, it being perceived that she settled very much to leeward, the tacks were got on board, and every sail set that was possible to get her free from the shore. Notwithstanding which, she could not weather the reef off the south-west end of the bay, the wind having at that time very unfavourably shifted two points. The ship was then thrown in stays, which she missed, being with great difficulty wore clear of the breakers, and brought to the wind on the other tack, when every sail was again set. Finding that she still drifted fast upon the shore, another attempt was made to stay her; but being out of trim, it did not succeed. All the sheets and hallyards were then ordered to be let fly, and an anchor to be cut away; but before it reached the ground, she struck with violence on the reef, very soon bulged, and was irrecoverably lost. Her officers and people were all saved, having been dragged on shore, through the surf, on a grating.
This day, which untoward circumstances had rendered so gloomy to us, was remarkably fine, and at the unfortunate moment of this calamity there was very little wind. On the next or second day after, permission was given to two convicts (one of whom, James Brannegan, was an overseer) to get off to the ship, and endeavour to bring on shore what live hogs they might be able to save; but with all that lamentable want of resolution and consideration which is characteristic of the lower order of people when temptations are placed before them, they both got intoxicated with the liquor which had escaped the plunder of the seamen, and set the ship on fire in two places. A light on board the ship being observed from the shore, several shot were fired at it, but the wretches would neither put it out, nor come on shore; when a young man of the name of Ascott, a convict, with great intrepidity went off through the surf, extinguished the fire, and forced them out of the ship.
The lieutenant-governor, immediately after the loss of the Sirius, called a council of all the naval and marine officers in the settlement, when it was unanimously determined that martial law should be proclaimed; that all private stock, poultry excepted, should be considered as the property of the state; that justice should be administered by a court-martial to be composed of seven officers, five of whom were to concur in a sentence of death; and that there should be two locks upon the door of the public store, whereof one key was to be in the keeping of a person to be appointed by Captain Hunter in behalf of the seamen; the other to be kept by a person to be appointed in behalf of the military. The day following, the troops, seamen, and convicts, being assembled, these resolutions were publicly read, and the whole confirmed their engagement of abiding by them by passing under the king's colour, which was displayed on the occasion.
In the Supply arrived the late commandant of Norfolk Island, two lieutenants, four petty officers, twenty-four seamen, and two marines, lately belonging to the Sirius. These officers spoke in high terms of the activity and conduct of Mr. Keltie the master, Mr. Brooks the boatswain, and Mr. Donovan a midshipman of the Sirius, who ventured off to the ship in one of the island boats through a very dangerous surf, and brought on shore the end of the hawser, to which was slung the grating that saved the lives of the officers and people. They likewise somewhat blunted the edge of this calamity, by assurances that it was highly probable, from the favourable appearance of the weather when the Supply left Norfolk Island, that all or at least the greatest part of the provisions would be landed from the Sirius.
The general melancholy which prevailed in this settlement when the above unwelcome intelligence was made public need not be described; and when the Supply came to an anchor in the cove every one looked up to her as to their only remaining hope.
In this exigency the governor thought it necessary to assemble all the officers of the settlement, civil and Military, to determine on what measures were necessary to be adopted. At this meeting, when the situation of the colony was thoroughly weighed and placed in every point of view, it was determined to reduce still lower what was already too low; the ration was to be no more then two pounds and a half of flour, two pounds of pork, one pint of peas, and one pound of rice, for each person for seven days. This allowance was to be issued to all descriptions of people in the colony, children under eighteen months excepted, who were to have only one pound of salt meat. Every exertion was to be made here, and at Botany Bay, in fishing for the general benefit. All private boats were to be surrendered to the public use; every effort was to be put in practice to prevent the robbing of gardens; and, as one step toward this, all suspicious characters were to be secured and locked up during the night. People were to be employed to kill, for the public, the animals that the country afforded; and every step was to be taken that could save a pound of the salt provisions in store, It was proposed to take all the hogs in the settlement as public property; but as it was absolutely necessary to keep some breeding sows, and the stock being small and very poor, that idea was abandoned.
In pursuance of these resolutions, the few convicts who had been employed to shoot for individuals were given up for the public benefit; and a fishery was established at Botany Bay, under the inspection of one of the midshipmen of the Sirius. But this plan, not being found to answer, was soon relinquished. The quantity of fish that was from time to time taken was very inconsiderable, and the labour of transporting it by land from thence was greater than the advantage which was expected to be derived from it. The boats were therefore recalled, and employed with rather more success at Sydney.
It was well known, that the integrity of the people employed in fishing could not be depended upon; the officers of the settlement therefore voluntarily took upon themselves the unpleasant task of superintending them; and it became a general duty, which every one cheerfully performed. The fishing-boat never went out without an officer, either by night or by day.
On the 7th, about four hundred weight of fish being brought up, it was issued agreeable to the order; and could the like quantity have been brought in daily, some saving might have been made at the store, which would have repaid the labour that was employed to obtain it. But the quantity taken during this month, after the 7th, was not often much more than equal to supplying the people employed in the boats with one pound of fish per man, which was allowed them in addition to their ration. The small boats, the property of individuals, were therefore returned to their owners, and the people who had been employed in them, together with the seamen of the Sirius now here, were placed in the large boats belonging to the settlement.
Neither was much advantage obtained by employing people to shoot for the public. At the end of the month only three small kangaroos had been brought in. The convicts who were employed on this service, three in number, were considered as good marksmen, and were allowed a ration of flour instead of their salt provisions, the better to enable them to sustain the labour and fatigue of traversing the woods of this country.
The necessity of procuring relief became every day more pressing. The voyage of the Sirius to China was at an end; and nothing had yet arrived from England, though hourly expected. It was the natural and general opinion, that our present situation was to be attributed to accident rather than to procrastination. It was more probable, that the vessels which had been dispatched by the British government had met with some distress, that had either compelled them to return or had wholly prevented them from any further prosecution of the voyage, than that any delay should have taken place in their departure. The governor, therefore, determined on sending the Supply armed tender to Batavia; and, as her commander was most zealously active in his preparations for the voyage, she was soon ready for sea. Her tonnage, however, was trifling when compared with our necessities. Lieutenant Ball was, therefore, directed to procure a supply of eight months provisions for himself, and to hire a vessel and purchase 200,000 pounds of flour, 80,000 pounds of beef, 60,000 pounds of pork, and 70,000 pounds of rice; together with some necessaries for the hospital, such as sugar, sago, hogs lard, vinegar, and dongaree. The expectation of this relief was indeed distant, but yet it was more to be depended upon than that which might be coming from England. A given time was fixed for the return of the Supply; but it was impossible to say when a vessel might arrive from Europe. Whatever might be our distress for provisions, it would be some alleviation to look on to a certain fixed period when it might be expected to be removed. Lieutenant Ball's passage lay through the regions of fine weather, and the hope of every one was fixed upon the little vessel that was to convey him; yet it was painful to contemplate our very existence as depending upon her safety; to consider that a rough sea, a hidden rock, or the violence of elemental strife, might in one fatal moment precipitate us, with the little bark that had all our hopes on board, to the lowest abyss of misery. In the well-known ability and undoubted exertions of her commander however, under God, all placed their dependance; and from that principle, when she sailed, instead of predicting mischance, we all, with one wish for her safe return, fixed and anticipated the period at which it might reasonably be expected.
She sailed on Saturday the 17th of April, having on board Lieutenant King, the late commandant of Norfolk Island, who was charged with the governor's dispatches for the secretary of state, and Mr. Andrew Miller, the late commissary, whose ill state of health obliging him to resign that employment, the governor permitted him to return to England. and had appointed Mr. John Palmer, the purser of the Sirius, to supply his place.
Lieutenant Newton Fowell, of the Sirius, was, together with the gunner of that ship, also embarked. The Supply was to touch at Norfolk Island, if practicable, and take on board Lieutenant Bradley of the Sirius, who, from his knowledge of the coast, was chosen by the governor to proceed to Batavia, and was to return to this port in whatever vessel might be freighted by Lieutenant Ball; Mr. Fowell and the gunner were to be left at the island.
Mr. Palmer received his appointment from his excellency on the 12th of this month, on which day the following was the state of the provisions in the public store, viz
Pork 23,851 pounds,) Which was 26th Aug.---4 months 14 days. Beef 1,280 pounds,) to serve Rice 24,455 pounds,) at the 13th Sept.--5 months 1 day. Peas 17 bushels,) ration Flour 56,884 pounds,) then issued 19th Dec.---8 months 7 days. Biscuit 1,924 pounds,) until
The duration of the Supply's voyage was generally expected to be six months; a period at which, if no relief arrived in the mean time from England, we should be found without salt provisions, rice, and peas.
In the above statement three hundred bushels of wheat, which had been produced at Rose Hill, were not included, being reserved for seed.
The governor, from a motive that did him immortal honor, in this season of general distress, gave up three hundred weight of flour which was his excellency's private property, declaring that he wished not to see any thing more at his table than the ration which was received in common from the public store, without any distinction of persons; and to this resolution he rigidly adhered, wishing that if a convict complained, he might see that want was not unfelt even at Government house.
On the 20th of the month, the following was the ration issued from the public store to each man for seven days, or to seven people for one day: flour, 2½ pounds, rice, 2 pounds, pork, 2 pounds. The peas were all expended. Was this a ration for a labouring man? The two pounds of pork, when boiled, from the length of time it had been in store. shrunk away to nothing; and when divided among seven people for their day's sustenance, barely afforded three or four morsels to each.
The inevitable consequences of this scarcity of provisions ensued; labour stood nearly suspended for want of energy to proceed; and the countenances of the people plainly bespoke the hardships they underwent. The convicts, however, were employed for the public in the forenoons; and such labour was obtained from them as their situation would allow. The guard-house on the east side was finished and taken possession of during the month.
There being many among the convicts who availed themselves of this peculiar situation to commit thefts, it became necessary to punish with severity all who were fully convicted before the court of criminal jurisdiction. One convict was executed for breaking into a house, and several others were sentenced to severe corporal punishments. Garden robberies were the principal offences committed. These people had been assembled by the governor, and informed that very severe punishment would follow the conviction of persons guilty of robbing gardens, as a necessary step toward preventing the continuance of such an evil; and he strongly inculcated the absolute necessity that existed for every man to cultivate his own garden, instead of robbing that of another. To the few who, from never having been industrious, had not any ground sown or planted with vegetables, he allotted a small but sufficient spot for their use, and encouraged them in their labour by his presence and directions; but they preferred any thing to honest industry. These people, though the major part of them were, during the night, locked up in the building lately occupied as a guardhouse, were ever on the watch to commit depredations on the unwary during the hours in which they were at large, and never suffered an opportunity to escape them. A female convict, who came down from Rose Hill, was robbed of her week's provisions; and as it was impossible to replace them from the public store, she was left to subsist on what she could obtain from the bounty (never more truly laudable than at this distressing juncture) of others who commiserated her situation.
One male convict was executed; one female convict and one child died. The female convict occasioned her own death, by overloading her stomach with flour and greens, of which she made a mess during the day, and ate heartily; but, not being satisfied, she rose in the night and finished it. This was one of the evil effects of the reduced ration.
May.] The expedient of shooting for the public not being found to answer the expectations which had been formed of it, sixty pounds of pork only having been saved, the game-killers were called in, and the general exertion was directed to the business of fishing. The seine and the hooks and lines were employed, and with various success; the best of which afforded but a very trifling relief.
As the Sirius was fated not to return to perform her intended voyage to India, the biscuit which had been baked for that purpose was issued, in lieu of flour, that article being served again when the biscuit was expended; and it lasted only through seven days.
It was naturally expected, that the miserable allowance which was issued would affect the healths of the labouring convicts. A circumstance occurred on the 12th of this month, which seemed to favor this idea; an elderly man dropped down at the store, whither he had repaired with others to receive his day's subsistence. Fainting with hunger, and unable through age to hold up any longer, he was carried to the hospital, where he died the next morning. On being opened, his stomach was found quite empty. It appeared, that not having any utensil of his own wherein to cook his provisions, nor share in any, he was frequently compelled, short as his allowance for the day was, to give a part of it to any one who would supply him with a vessel to dress his victuals; and at those times when he did not choose to afford this deduction, he was accustomed to eat his rice and other provisions undressed, which brought on indigestion, and at length killed him.
It might have been supposed, that the severity of the punishments which had been ordered by the criminal court on offenders convicted of robbing gardens would have deterred others from committing that offence; but while there was a vegetable to steal, there were those who would steal it, wholly regardless as to the injustice done to the person they robbed, and of the consequences that might ensue to themselves. For this sort of robbery the criminal court was twice assembled in the present month. The clergyman had taken a convict in his garden in the act of stealing potatoes. Example was necessary, and the court that tried him, finding that the severity of former courts did not prevent the commission of the same offence, instead of the great weight of corporal punishment which had marked their former sentences, directed this prisoner to receive three hundred lashes, his ration of flour to be stopped for six months, and himself to be chained for that time to two public delinquents who had been detected in the fact of robbing the governor's garden, and who had been ordered by the justices to work for a certain time in irons.
This sentence was carried into execution; but the governor remitted, after some days trial, that part of it which respected the prisoner's ration of flour, without which he could not long have existed.
The governor's garden had been the object of frequent depredation; scarcely a night passed that it was not robbed, notwithstanding that many received vegetables from it by his excellency's order. Two convicts had been taken up, who confessed that within the space of a month they had robbed it seven or eight times, and that they had killed a hog belonging to an officer. These were the people who were ordered by the justices to work in irons. A soldier, a man of infamous character, had been detected robbing the garden while sentinel in the neighbourhood of it, and, being tried by a court-martial for quitting his post, was sentenced and received five hundred lashes. Yet all this was not sufficient: on the evening of the 26th, a seaman belonging to the Sirius got into the governor's garden, and was fired at by a watchman who had been stationed there for some nights past, and wounded, as it afterwards appeared, but so slightly as not to prevent his effecting his escape; leaving, however, a bag behind him, filled with vegetables. On close examination it was fixed upon him, and, being brought before a criminal court, he was sentenced to receive five hundred lashes; but at the same time was recommended to the governor's clemency, on account of a good character which had been given him in court. The governor, as it was his garden that was robbed, attended to the recommendation, remitting four out of the five hundred lashes which had been ordered him*. Being, after this, villain enough to accuse some of his shipmates of crimes which he acknowledged existed only in his own malicious mind, he received, by order of the justices, a further punishment of fifty lashes.
[* Sixty pounds of flour, which had been offered as a reward for bringing to justice a garden-thief, were paid to the watchman who fired at him.]
So great was either the villainy of the people, or the necessities of the times, that a prisoner lying at the hospital under sentence of corporal punishment having received a part of it, five hundred lashes, contrived to get his irons off from one leg, and in that situation was caught robbing a farm. On being brought in, he received another portion of his punishment.
Among other thefts committed in this season of general distress, was one by a convict employed in the fishing boats, who found means to secrete several pounds of fish in a bag, which he meant to secure in addition to the allowance which was to be made him for having been out on that duty. To deter others from committing the like offence, which might, by repetition, amount to a serious evil, he was ordered to receive one hundred lashes.
At Rose Hill the convicts conducted themselves with much greater propriety; not a theft nor any act of ill behaviour having been for some time past heard of among them*.
[* They had vegetables in great abundance.]
At that settlement a kangaroo had been killed of one hundred and eighty pounds weight; and the people reported that they were much molested by the native dogs, which had been seen together in great numbers, and, coming by night about the settlement, had killed some hogs which were not housed.
The colony had hitherto been supplied with salt from the public stores, a quantity being always shaken off from the salt provisions, and reserved for use by the store-keepers; but the daily consumption of salt provisions was now become so inconsiderable, and they had been so long in store, that little or none of that article was to be procured. Two large iron boilers were therefore erected at the east point of the cove; some people were employed to boil the salt water, and the salt which was produced by this very simple process was issued to the convicts.
Our fishing tackle began now, with our other necessaries, to decrease. To remedy this inconvenience, we were driven by necessity to avail ourselves of some knowledge which we had gained from the natives; and one of the convicts (a rope-maker) was employed to spin lines from the bark of a tree which they used for the same purpose.
The native who had been taken in November last convinced us how far before every other consideration he deemed the possession of his liberty, by very artfully effecting his escape from the governor's house, where he had been treated with every indulgence and had enjoyed every comfort which it was in his excellency's power to give him. He managed his escape so ingeniously, that it was not suspected until he had completed it, and all search was rendered fruitless. The boy and the girl appeared to remain perfectly contented among us, and declared that they knew their countryman would never return.
During this month the bricklayer's gang and some carpenters were sent down to the Look-out, to erect two huts for the midshipmen and seamen of the Sirius who were stationed there, where the stonemason's gang were employed quarrying stone for two chimneys.
The greatest quantity of fish caught at any one time in this month was two hundred pounds. Once the seine was full; but through either the wilfulness or the ignorance of the people employed to land it, the greatest part of its contents escaped. Upwards of two thousand pounds were taken in the course of the month, which produced a saving of five hundred pounds of pork at the store, the allowance of thirty-one men for four weeks.
Very little labour could be enforced from people who had nothing to eat. Nevertheless, as it was necessary to think of some preparations for the next season, the convicts were employed in getting the ground ready both at Sydney and at Rose Hill for the reception of wheat and barley. The quantity of either article, however, to be now sown, fell far short of what our necessities required.
The Lady Juliana transport arrives from England
The Guardian
His Majesty's birthday
Thanksgiving for His Majesty's recovery
The Justinian storeship arrives
Full ration ordered
Three transports arrive
Horrid state of the convicts on board
Sick landed
Instance of sagacity in a dog
A convict drowned
Mortality and number of sick on the 13th
Convicts sent to Rose Hill
A town marked out there
Works in hand at Sydney
Instructions respecting grants of land
Mr. Fergusson drowned
Convicts' claims on the master of the Neptune
Transactions
Criminal Court
Whale
June.] The first and second days of this month were exceedingly unfavourable to our situation; heavy rain and blowing weather obstructed labour and prevented fishing. But it was decreed that on the 3rd we should experience sensations to which we had been strangers ever since our departure from England. About half past three in the afternoon of this day, to the inexpressible satisfaction of every heart in the settlement, the long-looked-for signal for a ship was made at the South Head. Every countenance was instantly cheered, and wore the lively expressions of eagerness, joy, and anxiety; the whole settlement was in motion and confusion. Notwithstanding it blew very strong at the time, the governor's secretary, accompanied by Captain Tench and Mr. White, immediately went off, and at some risk (for a heavy sea was running in the harbour's mouth) reached the ship for which the signal had been made just in time to give directions which placed her in safety in Spring Cove. She proved to be the Lady Juliana transport from London, last from Plymouth; from which latter place we learned, with no small degree of wonder and mortification, that she sailed on the 29th day of last July (full ten months ago) with two hundred and twenty-two female convicts on board.
We had long conjectured, that the non-arrival of supplies must be owing either to accident or delays in the voyage, and not to any backwardness on the part of government in sending them out. We now found that our disappointment was to be ascribed to both misfortune and delay. The Lady Juliana, we have seen, sailed in July last, and in the month of September following his majesty's ship Guardian, of forty-four guns, commanded by Lieutenant Edward Riou, sailed from England, having on board, with what was in the Lady Juliana, two years provisions, viz 295,344 pounds of flour, 149,856 pounds of beef, and 303,632 pounds of pork, for the settlement; a supply of clothing for the marines serving on shore, and for those belonging to the Sirius and Supply; together with a large quantity of sails and cordage for those ships and for the uses of the colony; sixteen chests of medicines; fifteen casks of wine; a quantity of blankets and bedding for the hospital; and a large supply of unmade clothing for the convicts; with an ample assortment of tools and implements of agriculture.
At the Cape of Good Hope Lieutenant Riou took on board a quantity of stock for the settlement, and completed a garden which had been prepared under the immediate direction of Sir Joseph Banks, and in which there were near one hundred and fifty of the finest fruit trees, several of them bearing fruit.
There was scarcely an officer in the colony that had not his share of private property embarked on board of this richly freighted ship; their respective friends having procured permission from government for that purpose.
But it was as painful then to learn, as it will ever be to recollect, that on the 23rd day of December preceding, the Guardian struck against an island of ice in latitude 45 degrees 54 minutes South, and longitude 41 degrees 30 minutes East, whereby she received so much injury, that Lieutenant Riou was compelled, in order to save her from instantly sinking, to throw overboard the greatest part of her valuable cargo both on the public and private account. The stock was all killed, (seven horses, sixteen cows, two bulls, a number of sheep, goats, and two deer,) the garden destroyed, and the ship herself saved only by the interposition of Providence, and the admirable conduct of the commander.
The Guardian was a fast-sailing ship, and would probably have arrived in the latter end of January or the beginning of February last. At that period the large quantity of live stock in the colony was daily increasing; the people required for labour were, comparatively with their present state, strong and healthy; the necessity of dividing the Convicts, and sending the Sirius to Norfolk Island, would not have existed; the ration of provisions, instead of the diminutions which had been necessarily directed, would have been increased to the full allowance; and the tillage of the ground consequently proceeded in with that spirit which must be exerted to the utmost before the settlement could render itself independent of the mother country for subsistence.
But to what a distance was that period now thrown by this unfortunate accident, and by the delay which took place in the voyage of the Lady Juliana! Government had placed a naval officer in this transport, Lieutenant Thomas Edgar*, for the purpose of seeing justice done to the convicts as to their provisions, cleanliness, etc. and to guard against any unnecessary delays on the voyage. Being directed to follow the route of the Sirius and her convoy, he called at Teneriffe and St. Iago, stayed seven weeks at Rio de Janeiro, and one month at the Cape of Good Hope; completing his circuitous voyage of ten months duration by arriving here on the 3rd day of June 1790.
[* He had sailed with the late Captain Cook.]
On Lieutenant Edgar's arrival at the Cape he found the Guardian lying there, Lieutenant Riou having just safely regained that port, from which he had sailed but a short time, with every fair prospect of speedily and happily executing the orders with which he was entrusted, and of conveying to this colony the assistance of which it stood so much in need. Unhappily for us, she was now lying a wreck, with difficulty and at an immense expense preserved from sinking at her anchors.
Beside the common share which we all bore in this calamity, we had to lament that the efforts of our several friends, in amply supplying the wants that they concluded must have been occasioned by an absence of three years, were all rendered ineffectual, the private articles having been among the first things that were thrown overboard to lighten the ship*.
[* The private property of the officers was all stowed, as the best and safest place in the ship, in the gun-room. Some officers were great losers.]
Government had sent out in the Guardian twenty-five male convicts, who were either farmers or artificers, together with seven persons engaged to serve as superintendants of convicts, for three years from their landing, at salaries of forty pounds per annum each. Of these, two, who were professed gardeners, were supposed to be drowned, having left the ship soon after she struck, with several other persons in boats, and not been heard of when the Lady Juliana left the Cape. The superintendants who remained came on in the transport; but the convicts, of whose conduct Lieutenant Riou spoke in the highest terms, were detained at the Cape.
A clergyman also was on board the Guardian, the Rev. Mr. Crowther, who had been appointed, at a salary of eight shillings per diem, to divide the religious duties of the settlement with Mr. Johnson. This gentleman left the ship with the master and purser in the long-boat, taking provisions and water with them; and of five boats which were launched on the same perilous enterprise, this was the only one that conducted her passengers into safety. They were fortunately, after many days sailing, picked up by a French ship, which took them into the Cape, and thence to Europe.
One-third of the stores and provisions intended for the colony were put on board the transport, the remaining two-thirds were on board the Guardian; none of which it was supposed would ever reach the settlement, the small quantity excepted (seventy-five barrels of flour) which was put on board the transport at the Cape. The Dutch at that place were profiting by our misfortune, their warehouses being let out at an immense expense to receive such of the provisions and stores as remained on board the Guardian when she got in.
In addition to the above distressing circumstances, we learned that one thousand convicts of both sexes were to sail at the latter end of the last year, and that a corps of foot was raising for the service of this country under the command of a major-commandant, Francis Grose esq. from the 29th foot, of which regiment, he was major. The transports which sailed hence in May, July, and November 1788 (the Friendship excepted) arrived in England within a very short time of each other; and their arrival relieved the public from anxiety upon our account.
The joy that was diffused by the arrival of the transports was considerably checked by the variety of unpleasant and unwelcome intelligence which she brought. We learned that our beloved Sovereign had been attacked and for some months afflicted with a dangerous and alarming illness, though now happily recovered. Our distance from his person had not lessened our attachment, and the day following the receipt of this information being the anniversary of his Majesty's birth, it was kept with every mark of distinction that was in our power. The governor pardoned all offenders who were under confinement, or under sentence of corporal punishment; the ration was increased for that day, that every one might rejoice; at the governor's table, where all the officers of the settlement and garrison were met, many prosperous and happy years were fervently wished to be added to his Majesty's life; and Wednesday the 9th was appointed for a public thanksgiving on occasion of his recovery.
The Lady Juliana was, by strong westerly winds and bad weather, prevented from reaching the cove until the 6th, when, the weather moderating, she was towed up to the settlement. The convicts on board her appeared to have been well treated during their long passage, and preparations for landing them were immediately made; but, in the distressed situation of the colony, it was not a little mortifying to find on board the first ship that arrived, a cargo so unnecessary and unprofitable as two hundred and twenty-two females, instead of a cargo of provisions; the supply of provisions on board her was so inconsiderable as to permit only an addition of one pound and a half of flour being made to the weekly ration. Had the Guardian arrived, perhaps we should never again have been in want.
On the 9th, being the day appointed for returning thanks to Almighty God for his Majesty's happy restoration to health, the attendance on divine service was very full. A sermon on the occasion was preached by the Rev. Mr. Johnson, who took his text from the book of Proverbs, 'By me kings reign.' The officers were afterwards entertained at the governor's, when an address on the occasion of the meeting was resolved to be sent to his Majesty.
When the women were landed on the 11th, many of them appeared to be loaded with the infirmities incident to old age, and to be very improper subjects for any of the purposes of an infant colony. Instead of being capable of labour, they seemed to require attendance themselves, and were never likely to be any other than a burden to the settlement, which must sensibly feel the hardship of having to support by the labour of those who could toll, and who at the best were but few, a description of people utterly incapable of using any exertion toward their own maintenance.
When the women were disembarked, and the provisions and stores landed, it was found that twenty casks of flour (from the unfitness of the ship to perform such a voyage, being old and far from tight) were totally destroyed. This was a serious loss to us, when only four pounds of flour constituted the allowance of that article for one man for seven days.
From this situation of distress, however, we were in a short time afterwards effectually relieved, and the colony might be pronounced to be restored, by the arrival (on the 20th) of the Justinian storeship, Mr. Benjamin Maitland master, from England, after a short passage of only five months. Mr. Maitland, on the 2nd of this month, the day preceding the arrival of the Lady Juliana, was off the entrance of this harbour, and would certainly have been found by that ship at anchor within the heads, had he not, by a sudden change of the wind, aided by a current, been driven as far to the northward as Black Head, in latitude 32 degrees S. where he was very nearly lost in an heavy gale of wind; but which he providentially rode out, having been obliged to come to an anchor, though close in with some dangerous rocks. The wind was dead on the shore, and the rocks so close when he anchored, that the rebound of the wave prevented him from riding any considerable strain on his cable. Had that failed him, we should never have seen the Justinian or her valuable cargo, which was found to consist of stores and provisions, trusted, it was true, to one ship; but as she had happily arrived in safety, and was full, we all rejoiced that we had not to wait for the arrival of a second before the colony could be restored to its former plenty.
We now learned that three transports might be hourly expected, having on board the thousand convicts of whose destination we had received some information by the Lady Juliana, together with detachments of the corps raised for the service of this country. The remainder of this corps (which was intended to consist of three hundred men) were to come out in the Gorgon man of war, of forty-four guns. This ship was also to bring out Major Grose, who had been appointed lieutenant-governor of the territory in the room of Major Ross, which officer, together with the marines under his command, were intended to return to England in that ship.
Of the change which had been effected in the system of government in France we now first received information, and we heard with pleasure that it was not likely to interrupt the tranquillity of our own happy nation--happy in a constitution which might well excite the admiration and become the model of other states not so free.
The Justinian had sailed on the 17th of last January from Falmouth, and touched only at St. Iago, avoiding, as she had not any convicts on board, the circuitous passage by the Rio de Janeiro and the Cape of Good Hope.
On the day following her arrival, every thing seemed getting into its former train; the full ration was ordered to be issued; instead of daily, it was to be served weekly as formerly; and the drum for labour was to beat as usual in the afternoons at one o'clock. How general was the wish, that no future necessity might ever occasion another deduction in the ration, or an alteration in the labour of the people!
That Norfolk Island, whose situation at this time every one was fearful might call loudly for relief, should as quickly as possible reap her share of the benefit introduced among us by these arrivals, it was intended to send the Lady Juliana thither; and as she required some repairs, without which she could not proceed to sea, some carpenters from the shore were sent on board her, and employed to sheath her bends, which were extremely defective.
A shop was opened on shore by the master of this ship, at the hut lately occupied as a bakehouse for the Supply, for the sale of some articles of grocery, glass, millinery, perfumery, and stationary; but the risk of bringing them out having been most injudiciously estimated too highly, as was evident from the increase on the first cost, which could not be disguised, they did not go off so quickly as the owners supposed they would.
A report having been circulated soon after the establishing of this settlement, that a considerable sum of money had been subscribed in England, to be expended in articles for the benefit of the convicts who embarked for this country, which articles had been entrusted to the Rev. Mr. Johnson, to be disposed of according to the intention of the subscribers after our arrival, Mr. Johnson wrote to his friends in England to confute this report; and by accounts lately received, it appeared that no such public collection had ever been made; at Mr. Johnson's request, therefore, the governor published a contradiction of the above report in the general orders of the settlement. The convicts had hitherto imagined that they had a right to the articles which had from time to time been distributed among them; but Mr. Johnson now thought it necessary that they should know it was to his bounty they were indebted for them, and that consequently the partakers of it were to be of his own selection.
The female convicts who had lately arrived attending at divine service on the first Sunday after their landing, Mr. Johnson, with much propriety, in his discourse, touched upon their situation, and described it so forcibly as to draw tears from many who were the least hardened among them.
Early in the morning of the 23rd, one of the men at the Lookout discerned a sail to the northward, but, the weather coming on thick, soon lost sight of it. The bad weather continuing, it was not seen again until the 25th, when word was brought up to the settlement, that a large ship, apparently under jury-masts, was seen in the offing; and on the following day the Surprise transport, Nicholas Anstis master (late chief mate of the Lady Penrhyn) anchored in the cove from England, having on board one captain, one lieutenant, one surgeon's mate, one serjeant, one corporal, one drummer, and twenty-three privates of the New South Wales corps; together with two hundred and eighteen male convicts. She sailed on the 19th of January from Portsmouth in company with two other transports, with whom she parted between the Cape of Good Hope and this place.
We had the mortification to learn, that the prisoners in this ship were very unhealthy, upwards of one hundred being now in the sick list on board. They had been very sickly also during the passage, and had buried forty-two of these unfortunate people. A portable hospital had fortunately been received by the Justinian, and there now appeared but too great a probability that we should soon have patients enough to fill it; for the signal was flying at the South Head for the other transports, and we were led to expect them in as unhealthy a state as that which had just arrived.
On the evening of Monday the 28th, the Neptune and Scarborough transports anchored off Garden Island, and were warped into the cove the following morning.
We were not mistaken in our expectations of the state in which they might arrive. By noon the following day, two hundred sick had been landed from the different transports. The west side afforded a scene truly distressing and miserable; upwards of thirty tents were pitched in front of the hospital, the portable one not being yet put up; all of which, as well as the hospital and the adjacent huts, were filled with people, many of whom were labouring under the complicated diseases of scurvy and the dysentery, and others in the last stage of either of those terrible disorders, or yielding to the attacks of an infectious fever.
The appearance of those who did not require medical assistance was lean and emaciated. Several of these miserable people died in the boats as they were rowing on shore, or on the wharf as they were lifting out of the boats; both the living and the dead exhibiting more horrid spectacles than had ever been witnessed in this country. All this was to be attributed to confinement, and that of the worst species, confinement in a small space and in irons, not put on singly, but many of them chained together. On board the Scarborough a plan had been formed to take the ship, which would certainly have been attempted, but for a discovery which was fortunately made by one of the convicts (Samuel Burt) who had too much principle left to enter into it. This necessarily, on board that ship, occasioned much future circumspection; but Captain Marshall's humanity considerably lessened the severity which the insurgents might naturally have expected. On board the other ships, the masters, who had the entire direction of the prisoners, never suffered them to be at large on deck, and but few at a time were permitted there. This consequently gave birth to many diseases. It was said, that on board the Neptune several had died in irons; and what added to the horror of such a circumstance was, that their deaths were concealed, for the purpose of sharing their allowance of provisions, until chance, and the offensiveness of a corpse, directed the surgeon, or some one who had authority in the ship, to the spot where it lay.
A contract had been entered into by government with Messrs. Calvert, Camden, and King, merchants of London, for the transporting of one thousand convicts, and government engaged to pay £17 7s 6d per head for every convict they embarked. This sum being as well for their provisions as for their transportation, no interest for their preservation was created in the owners, and the dead were more profitable (if profit alone was consulted by them, and the credit of their house was not at stake) than the living.
The following accounts of the numbers who died on board each ship were given in by the masters:
Men Women Children
On board the Lady Juliana 0 5 2
On board the Surprise 42 0 0
On board the Scarborough 68 0 0
On board the Neptune 151 11 2
-----------------
Total 261 16 4
-----------------
All possible expedition was used to get the sick on shore; for even while they remained on board many died. The bodies were taken over to the north shore, and there interred.
Parties were immediately sent into the woods to collect the acid berry of the country, which for its extreme acetosity was deemed by the surgeons a most powerful antiscorbutic. Among other regulations, orders were given for baking a certain quantity of flour into pound loaves, to be distributed daily among the sick, as it was not in their power to prepare it themselves. Wine and other necessaries being given judiciously among those whose situations required such comforts, many of the wretches had recourse to stratagem to obtain more than their share by presenting themselves, under different names and appearances, to those who had the delivery of them, or by exciting the compassion of those who could order them.
Blankets were immediately sent to the hospital in sufficient numbers to make every patient comfortable; notwithstanding which, they watched the moment when any one died to strip him of his covering (although dying themselves) and could only be prevented by the utmost vigilance from exercising such inhumanity in every instance.
The detachment from the New South Wales corps, consisting of one captain, three subalterns, and a proportionate number of non-commissioned officers and privates, was immediately disembarked, and room being made in the marine barracks, they took possession of the quarters allotted for them.
Lieutenant Shapcote, the naval agent on board the Neptune, died between the Cape of Good Hope and this place. A son of this gentleman arrived in the Justinian, to which ship he belonged, and received the first account of his father's death, on going aboard the Neptune to congratulate him on his arrival.
An instance of sagacity in a dog occurred on the arrival of the Scarborough, too remarkable to pass unnoticed; Mr. Marshall, the master of the ship, on quitting Port Jackson in May 1788, left a Newfoundland dog with Mr. Clark (the agent on the part of the contractor, who remained in the colony), which he had brought from England. On the return of his old master, Hector swam off to the ship, and getting on board, recognised him, and manifested, in every manner suitable to his nature, his Joy at seeing him; nor could the animal be persuaded to quit him again, accompanying him always when he went on shore, and returning with him on board.
At a muster of the convicts which was directed during this month, one man only was unaccounted for, James Haydon. Soon after the muster was over, word was brought to the commissary, that his body had been found drowned in Long Cove, at the back of the settlement. Upon inquiry into the cause of his death, it appeared that he had a few days before stolen some tobacco out of an officer's garden in which he had been employed, and, being threatened with punishment, had absconded. He was considered as a well-behaved man; and if he preferred death to shame and punishment, which he had been heard to declare he did, and which his death seemed to confirm, he was deserving a better fate.
The total number of sick on the last day of the month was three hundred and forty-nine.
July.] The melancholy scenes which closed the last month appeared unchanged at the beginning of this. The morning generally opened with the attendants of the sick passing frequently backwards and forwards from the hospital to the burying-ground with the miserable victims of the night. Every exertion was made to get up the portable hospital; but, although we were informed that it had been put up in London in a very few hours, we did not complete it until the 7th, when it was instantly filled with patients. On the 13th, there were four hundred and eighty-eight persons under medical treatment at and about the hospital--a dreadful sick list!
Such of the convicts from the ships as were in a tolerable state of health, both male and female, were sent up to Rose Hill, to be employed in agriculture and other labours. A subaltern's detachment from the New South Wales corps was at the same time sent up for the military duty of that settlement in conjunction with the marine corps.
There also the governor in the course of the month laid down the lines of a regular town. The principal street was marked out to extend one mile, commencing near the landing-place, and running in a direction west, to the foot of the rising ground named Rose Hill, and in which his excellency purposed to erect a small house for his own residence whenever he should visit that settlement. On each side of this street, whose width was to be two hundred and five feet, huts were to be erected capable of containing ten persons each, and at the distance of sixty feet one from the other; and garden ground for each hut was allotted in the rear. As the huts were to be built of such combustible materials as wattles and plaster, and to be covered with thatch, the width of the street, and the distance they were placed from each other, operated as an useful precaution against fire; and by beginning on so wide a scale the inhabitants of the town at some future day would possess their own accommodations and comforts more readily, each upon his own allotment, than if crowded into a small space.
View of the Governor's house at Rose Hill in the township of Parramatta.
While these works were going on at Rose Hill, the labouring convicts at Sydney were employed in constructing a new brick storehouse, discharging the transports, and forming a road from the town to the brick-kilns, for the greater ease and expedition in bringing in bricks to the different buildings.
Our stores now wore a more respectable appearance than they had done for some time. In addition to the provisions put on board the transports in England, Lieutenant Riou had forwarded by those ships four hundred tierces of beef and two hundred tierces of pork, which he had saved from the wreck of the Guardian, and which we had the satisfaction to find were nothing the worse for the accident which befel her. These, with the seventy-five casks of flour which were brought on by the Lady Juliana, formed the amount of what we were now to receive of the large cargo of that unfortunate ship.
Lieutenant Riou also sent by these ships the twenty male convicts which had been selected as artificers and put on board the Guardian in England; and with them he sent the most pointed recommendations in their favour, describing their conduct, both before and after the accident which happened to the ship under his command, in the strongest terms of approbation.
The Lady Juliana being found on inspection to require such extensive repairs as would too long delay the dispatching the necessary supplies to Norfolk Island, the governor directed the Surprise transport and Justinian storeship to proceed thither.
By the 19th, the Justinian was cleared of her cargo, excepting about five hundred casks of provisions, which were not to be taken out until she arrived at Norfolk Island; and both that ship and the Surprise were preparing with all expedition for sailing. The Justinian, however, from the circumstance of retaining some part of her large cargo on board, was ready first, and sailed on the 28th. The master, Mr. Benjamin Maitland, was directed to follow his former orders after landing his stores and provisions at Norfolk Island, and proceed to Canton to freight home with teas upon account of government. She was hired by the month at fifteen shillings and sixpence per ton, and was to be in government employ until her return to Deptford. By this ship the governor sent dispatches to the secretary of state.
The Lady Juliana, having received some repairs by the carpenters of the colony at the time when it was designed she should to Norfolk Island, and some others by the assistance of her own carpenters, sailed a day or two after the Justinian for Canton. From the extravagant price set on his goods by the master, his shop had turned out badly; and it was said that he took many articles to sea, which he must of necessity throw overboard before he reached Canton.
The governor received by these ships dispatches from the secretary of state, containing, among other articles of information, instructions respecting the granting of lands and the allotting of ground in townships. Soon after their arrival it was declared in public orders:
That, in consequence of the assurances that were given to the non-commissioned officers and men belonging to the detachment of marines, on their embarking for the service of this country, that such of them as should behave well should be allowed to quit the service on their return to England, or be discharged abroad upon the relief, and permitted to settle in the country; his Majesty had been graciously pleased to direct the following terms to be held out as an encouragement to such non-commissioned officers and private men of the marines as might be desirous of becoming settlers in this country, or in any of the islands comprised within the government of the continent* of New South Wales, on the arrival of the corps raised and intended for the service of this country, and for their relief, viz.
[* Now so called officially for the first time.]
To every non-commissioned officer, an allotment of one hundred and thirty acres of land if single, and one hundred and fifty if married.
To every private man, eighty acres of land if single, one hundred if married; and ten acres of land for each child at the time of granting the allotment; free of all fees, taxes, quit-rents, and other acknowledgments, for the term of five years; at the expiration of which term to be liable to an annual quit-rent of one shilling for every fifty acres.
As a further encouragement, a bounty was offered of three pounds per man to every non-commissioned officer and private man who would enlist in the new corps (to form a company to be officered from the marines) and an allotment of double the above proportion of land if they behaved well for five years, to be granted them at the expiration of that time; the said allotments not to be subject to any fee or tax for ten years, and then to be liable to an annual quit-rent of one shilling for every fifty acres.
And upon their discharge at either of the above periods they were to be supplied with clothing and one year's provisions, with feed grain, tools, and implements of agriculture. The service of a certain number of convicts was to be assigned to them for their labour when they could make it appear that they could maintain, feed, and clothe them. In these instructions no mention was made of granting lands to officers; and to other persons who might emigrate and be desirous of settling in this country, no greater proportion of land was to be allotted than what was to be granted to a non-commissioned officer of the marines.
Government, between every allotment, reserved to itself a space on either side, which, as crown land, was equal to the largest grant, not to be granted, but leased only to individuals for the term of fourteen years.
Provision was made for the church, by allotting in each township which should be marked out four hundred acres for the maintenance of a minister; and half of that number was to be allotted for the maintenance of a school master.
If the allotments should happen to be made on the banks of any navigable river or creek, care was to be taken that the breadth of each track did not extend along the banks thereof more than one-third of the length of such track, in order that no settler should engross more than his proportion of the benefit which would accrue from such a situation. And it was also directed, that the good and the bad land should be as equally divided as circumstances would allow.
No new regulations were directed to take place in respect of granting lands to convicts emancipated or discharged; the original instructions, under which each male convict if single was to have thirty, if married fifty, and ten acres for every child he might have at the time of settling, remained in force.
The particular conditions required by the crown from a settler were, the residing upon the ground, proceeding to the improvement and cultivation of his allotment, and reserving such of the timber thereof as might be fit for naval purposes for the use of his Majesty.
The period fixed by government for victualling a settler from the public stores, twelve months, was in general looked upon as too short, and it was thought not practicable for any one at the end of that period to maintain himself, unless during that time he should have very great assistance given him, and be fortunate in his crops.
About the latter end of this month a spermaceti whale was seen in the harbour, and some boats from the transports went after it with harpoons; but, from the ignorance of the people in the use of them, the fish escaped unhurt. In a few days afterwards word was received that a punt belonging to Lieutenant Poulden had been pursued by a whale and overset, by which accident young Mr. Ferguson (a midshipman of the Sirius) and two soldiers were unfortunately drowned. The soldiers, with another of their companions, who saved his life by swimming, had been down the harbour fishing, and, calling at the Look-out, took in Mr. Ferguson, who had sat up all the preceding night to write to his father, Captain James Ferguson, lieutenant-governor of Greenwich hospital, and was now bringing his letters to Sydney for the purpose of sending them by the Justinian.
Mr. Ferguson was a steady well-disposed young man, and the service, in all probability, by this extraordinary accident, lost a good officer.
The Scarborough was cleared this month, and, being discharged from government employ, the master was left at liberty to proceed to Canton, where he was to load home with teas.
Much irregularity was committed by the seamen of the transports, who found means to get on shore at night, notwithstanding the port orders; and one, a sailor from the Neptune, was punished with twenty-five lashes for being found on shore without any permission at eleven o'clock at night.
The sick list, now consisting of only three hundred and thirty-two persons, was found to be daily decreasing, and the mortality was infinitely less at the end, than at the beginning of the month.
August.] The Surprise transport sailed on the first of August for Norfolk Island, having on board thirty-five male and one hundred and fifty female convicts, two of the superintendants lately arrived, and one deputy commissary, Mr. Thomas Freeman, appointed such by the governor's warrant. There came out in the Neptune a person of the name of Wentworth, who, being desirous of some employment in this country, was now sent to Norfolk Island to act as an assistant to the surgeon there, being reputed to have the necessary requisites for such a situation.
On the 8th, the Scarborough sailed for Canton, and the Neptune was preparing to follow her as soon as she could be cleared of the cargo she had on board upon account of government. While this was delivering, some of the convicts who came out in that ship put in before the judge-advocate their claims upon the master, Mr. Donald Trail, not only for clothing and other articles, but for money, which they stated to have been taken from them at the time of their embarkation, and had never since been returned to them. Many of these claims were disputed by Mr. Trail, and others were settled to the satisfaction of the claimants; but of their clothing, knives, buckles, etc. he could give no other account, than that he was directed by the naval agent, Lieutenant Shapcote, to destroy them at their embarkation for obvious reasons, tending to the safety of the ship and for the preservation of their healths.
On the 19th the Neptune was cleared and discharged the service, having landed the cargo she brought out on government account in good condition. Preparatory to her sailing for China, she quitted the cove on the 22nd; soon after which, information being received that several convicts purposed to attempt making their escape in her from the colony, a small armed party of soldiers was sent on board her, under the direction of Lieutenant Long* of the marines, to search the ship, when one man and one woman were found on board. The man was one who had just arrived in the colony, and, being soon tired of his situation, had prevailed on some of the people to secrete him among the fire-wood which they had taken on board. In the night another person swam off to the ship, and was received by the guard. He pleaded being a free man, but as he had taken a very improper mode of quitting the colony, he was, by order of the governor, punished the day following, together with the convict who had been found concealed among the fire-wood. The Neptune sailed on the 24th, leaving behind her one mate Mr. Forfar, and two seamen; and the cove was once more without a ship.
[* Appointed by Governor Plillip, after the arrival of the New South Wales corps, to do the duty of town-adjutant.]
An excursion into the country had been undertaken this month by Captain Tench and some other officers. They were absent six days, and on their return we learned, that they had proceeded in a direction SSW of Rose Hill; that they met with fresh water running to the northward; found the traces of natives wherever they went, and passed through a very bad country intersected every where with deep ravines. They had reason to think, that in rainy weather the run of water which they met with rose above its ordinary level between thirty and forty feet. They saw a flock of emus twelve in number.
It having been found that the arms and ammunition which were entrusted to the convicts residing at the distant farms for their protection against the natives, were made a very different use of, an order was given recalling them, and prohibiting any convicts from going out with arms, except McIntire, Burn, and Randall, who were licensed game-killers.
The clergyman complaining of non-attendance at divine service, which it must be observed was generally performed in the open air, alike unsheltered from wind and rain, as from the fervor of the summer's sun, it was ordered that three pounds of flour should be deducted from the ration of each overseer, and two pounds from that of each labouring convict, who should not attend prayers once on each Sunday, unless some reasonable excuse for their absence should be assigned.
Toward the latter end of the month a criminal court was held for the trial of Hugh Low, a convict, who had been in the Guardian, and who was in custody for stealing a sheep, the property of Mr. Palmer the commissary. Being most clearly convicted of the offence by the evidence of an accomplice and others, he received sentence of death, and, the governor not deeming it advisable to pardon an offence of that nature, suffered the next day, acknowledging the commission of the fact for which he died.
The preservation of our stock was an object of so much consequence to the colony, that it became indispensably necessary to protect it by every means in our power. Had any lenity been extended to this offender on account of his good conduct in a particular situation, it might have been the cause of many depredations being made upon the stock, which it was hoped his punishment would prevent.
On the 28th a pair of shoes were served to each convict. The female convicts were employed in making the slops for the men, which had been now sent out unmade. Each woman who could work at her needle had materials for two shirts given her at a time, and while so employed was not to be taken for any other labour.
The storehouse which was begun in July was finished this month, and was got up and covered in without any rain. Its dimensions were one hundred feet by twenty-two.
At Rose Hill the convicts were employed in constructing the new town which had been marked out, building the huts, and forming the principal street. The governor, who personally directed all these works, caused a spot of ground for a capacious garden to be allotted for the use of the New South Wales corps, contiguous to the spot whereon his excellency meant to erect the barracks for that corps.
In addition to the flagstaff which had been erected on the South Head of the harbour, the governor determined to construct a column, of a height sufficient to be seen from some distance at sea, and the stonemasons were sent down to quarry stone upon the spot for the building.
The body of one of the unfortunate people who were drowned at the latter end of July last with Mr. Ferguson was found about the close of this month, washed on shore in Rose Bay, and very much disfigured. The whale which occasioned this accident, we were informed, had never found its way out of the harbour, but, getting on shore in Manly Bay, was killed by the natives, and was the cause of numbers of them being at this time assembled to partake of the repasts which it afforded them.
Governor Phillip wounded by a native
Intercourse opened with the natives
Great haul of fish
Convicts abscond with a boat
Works
Want of rain
Natives
Supply returns from Batavia
Transactions there
Criminal Courts
James Bloodworth emancipated
Oars found in the woods
A convict brought back in the Supply
A boat with five people lost
Public works
A convict wounded by a native
Armed parties sent out to avenge him
A Dutch vessel arrives with supplies from Batavia
Decrease by sickness and casualties in 1790
September.] Since the escape of Bennillong the native in May last, nothing had been heard of him, nor had any thing worthy of notice occurred among the other natives. In the beginning of this month, however, they were brought forward again by a circumstance which seemed at first to threaten the colony with a loss that must have been for some time severely felt; but which was succeeded by an opening of that amicable intercourse with these people which the governor had always laboured to establish, and which was at last purchased by a most unpleasant accident to himself, and at the risk of his life.
The governor, who had uniformly directed every undertaking in person since the formation of the colony, went down in the morning of the 7th to the South Head, accompanied by Captain Collins and Lieutenant Waterhouse, to give some instructions to the people employed in erecting a column at that place. As he was returning to the settlement, he received information, by a boat which had landed Mr. White and some other gentlemen in the lower part of the harbour (they were going on an excursion towards Broken Bay) that Bennillong had been seen there by Mr. White, and had sent the governor as a present a piece of the whale which was then lying in the wash of the surf on the beach. Anxious to see him again, the governor, after taking some arms from the party at the Look-out, which he thought the more requisite in this visit as he heard the cove was full of natives, went down and landed at the place where the whale was lying. Here he not only saw Bennillong, but Cole-be also, who had made his escape from the governor's house a few days after his capture. At first his excellency trusted himself alone with these people; but the few months Bennillong had been away had so altered his person, that the governor, until joined by Mr. Collins and Mr. Waterhouse, did not perfectly recollect his old acquaintance. Bennillong had been always much attached to Mr. Collins, and testified with much warmth his satisfaction at seeing him again. Several articles of wearing apparel were now given to him and his companions (taken for that purpose from the people in the boat, who, all but one man, remained on their oars to be ready in case of any accident), and a promise was exacted from the governor by Bennillong to return in two days with more, and also with some hatchets or tomahawks. The cove was full of natives allured by the attractions of a whale feast; and it being remarked during the conference that the twenty or thirty which appeared were drawing themselves into a circle round the governor and his small unarmed party (for that was literally and most inexcusably their situation) the governor proposed retiring to the boat by degrees; but Bennillong, who had presented to him several natives by name, pointed out one, whom the governor, thinking to take particular notice of, stepped forward to meet, holding out both his hands toward him. The savage not understanding this civility, and perhaps thinking that he was going to seize him as a prisoner, lifted a spear from the grass with his foot, and fixing it on his throwing-stick, in an instant darted it at the governor. The spear entered a little above the collar bone, and had been discharged with such force, that the barb of it came through on the other side. Several other spears were thrown, but happily no further mischief was effected. The spear was with difficulty broken by Lieutenant Waterhouse, and while the governor was leading down to the boat the people landed with the arms, but of four muskets which they brought on shore one only could be fired.
The boat had five miles to row before it reached the settlement; but the people in her exerting themselves to the utmost, the governor was landed and in his house in something less than two hours. The spear was extracted with much skill by Mr. Balmain, one of the assistant-surgeons of the hospital, who immediately pronounced the wound not mortal. An armed party was dispatched that evening toward Broken Bay for Mr. White, the principal surgeon, who returned the following day, and reported that in the cove where the whale lay they saw several natives; but being armed nothing had happened.
No other motive could be assigned for this conduct in the savage, than the supposed apprehension that he was about to be seized by the governor, which the circumstance of his advancing toward him with his hands held out might create. But it certainly would not have happened had the precaution of taking even a single musket on shore been attended to. The governor had always placed too great a confidence in these people, under an idea that the sight of fire arms would deter them from approaching; he had now, however, been taught a lesson which it might be presumed he would never forget.
This accident gave cause to the opening of a communication between the natives of this country and the settlement, which, although attended with such an unpromising beginning, it was hoped would be followed with good consequences.
A few days after the accident, Bennillong, who certainly had not any culpable share in the transaction, came with his wife and some of his companions to a cove on the north shore not far from the settlement, where, by means of Boo-roong, the female who lived in the clergyman's house, an interview was effected between the natives and some officers, Mr. White, Mr. Palmer, and others, who at some personal risk went over with her.
At this time the name of the man who had wounded the governor was first known, Wil-le-me-ring; and Bennillong made many attempts to fix a belief that he had beaten him severely for the aggression. Bennillong declared that he should wait in that situation for some days, and hoped that the governor would be able, before the expiration of them, to visit him. On the tenth day after he had received the wound, his excellency was so far recovered as to go to the place, accompanied by several officers all armed, where he saw Bennillong and his companions. Bennillong then repeated his assurances of his having, in conjunction with his friend Cole-be, severely beaten Wille-me-ring; and added that his throwing the spear at the governor was entirely the effect of his fears, and done from the impulse of self-preservation.
The day preceding the governor's visit, the fishing boats had the greatest success which had yet been met with; near four thousand of a fish, named by us, from its shape only, the salmon, being taken at two hauls of the seine. Each fish weighed on an average about five pounds; they were issued to this settlement, and to that at Rose Hill; and thirty or forty were sent as a conciliating present to Bennillong and his party on the north shore.
These circumstances, and the visit to the natives, in which it was endeavoured to convince them that no animosity was retained on account of the late accident, nor resentment harboured against any but the actual perpetrator of the fact, created a variety in the conversation of the day; and those who were desirous of acquiring the language were glad of the opportunity which the recently-opened intercourse seemed to promise them.
In the night of the 26th a desertion of an extraordinary nature took place. Five male convicts conveyed themselves, in a small boat called a punt, from Rose Hill undiscovered. They there exchanged the punt, which would have been unfit for their purpose, for a boat, though very small and weak, with a mast and sail, with which they got out of the harbour. On sending to Rose Hill, people were found who could give an account of their intentions and proceedings, and who knew that they purposed steering for Otaheite. They had each taken provisions for one week; their cloaths and bedding; three iron pots, and some other utensils of that nature. They all came out in the last fleet, and took this method of speedily accomplishing their sentences of transportation, which were for the term of their natural lives. Their names were, John Tarwood, a daring, desperate character, and the principal in the scheme; Joseph Sutton, who was found secreted on board the Neptune and punished; George Lee; George Connoway, and John Watson. A boat with an officer was sent to search for them in the north-west branch of this harbour, but returned, after several hours search, without discovering the least trace of them. They no doubt pushed directly out upon that ocean which, from the wretched state of the boat wherein they trusted themselves, must have proved their grave.
The governor purposing to erect a capacious storehouse and a range of barracks at Rose Hill, a convict who understood the business of brickmaking was sent up for the purpose of manufacturing a quantity sufficient for those buildings, a vein of clay having been found which it was supposed would burn into good bricks. A very convenient wharf and landing place were made at that settlement, and twenty-seven huts were in great forwardness at the end of the month.
Very small hopes were entertained of the wheat of this season; extreme dry weather was daily burning it up. Toward the latter end of the month some rain fell, the first which deserved the name of a heavy rain since last June.
October.] The little rain which fell about the close of the preceding month soon ceased, and the gardens and the corn grounds were again parching for want of moisture. The grass in the woods was so dried, that a single spark would have set the surrounding country in flames; an instance of this happened early in the month, with the wind blowing strong at N W. It was however happily checked.
Bennillong, after appointing several days to visit the governor, came at last on the 8th, attended by three of his companions. The welcome reception they met with from every one who saw them inspired the strangers with such a confidence in us, that the visit was soon repeated; and at length Bennillong solicited the governor to build him a hut at the extremity of the eastern point of the cove. This the governor, who was very desirous of preserving the friendly intercourse which seemed to have taken place, readily promised, and gave the necessary directions for its being built.
19th.] While we were thus amusing ourselves with these children of ignorance, the signal for a sail was made at the South Head, and shortly after the Supply anchored in the cove from Batavia, having been absent from the settlement six months and two days. Lieutenant Ball arrived at Batavia on the 6th of July last, where he hired a vessel, a Dutch snow, which was to sail shortly after him with the provisions that he had purchased for the colony. While the Supply lay at Batavia the season was more unhealthy than had ever been known before; every hospital was full, and several hundreds of the inhabitants had died. Lieutenant Ball, at this grave of Europeans, buried Lieutenant Newton Fowell, Mr. Ross the gunner, and several of his seamen. He tried for some days to touch at Norfolk Island, but ineffectually, being prevented by easterly winds. Mr. King and Mr. Miller (the late commissary) had sailed on the 4th of last August in a Dutch packet for Europe.
By the return of this vessel several comforts were introduced into the settlement; her commander, with that attention to the wants of the different officers which always characterised him, having procured and taken on board their respective investments.
In his passage to Batavia, Lieutenant Ball saw some islands, to which, conjecturing, from not finding them in any charts which he had on board, that he might claim being the discoverer of them, he gave names accordingly. Although anxious to make an expeditious passage, he had the mortification to be baffled by contrary winds both to and from Batavia; and at that settlement, instead of finding the governor-general (to whom in his orders he was directed to apply for permission to purchase provisions, and for a ship to bring them) ready to forward the service he came on, which he represented as requiring the utmost expedition, he was referred to the Sabandhaar, Mr. N. Engelhard, who, after much delay and pretence of difficulty in procuring a vessel, produced one, a snow, which they estimated at three hundred and fifty tons burden, and demanded to be paid for at the rate of eighty rix dollars for every ton freight, amounting together to twenty-eight thousand rix dollars, each rix dollar being computed at forty-eight Dutch pennies; and the freight was to be paid although the vessel should be lost on the passage.
As it was impossible to hire any vessel there upon cheaper terms, Lieutenant Ball was compelled to engage for the Waaksamheyd (that being her name, which, englished, signified 'Good look out') upon the terms they proposed. Of the provisions which he was instructed to procure, the whole quantity of flour, two hundred thousand pounds, was not to be had, he being able only to purchase twenty thousand and twenty-one pounds, for which they charged ten stivers per pound, and an addition of about one-third of a penny per pound was charged for grinding it*. Instead of the flour Lieutenant Ball purchased two hundred thousand pounds of rice, at one rix dollar and forty-four stivers per hundred weight over and above the seventy thousand pounds he was directed to procure. The salt provisions were paid for at the rate of seven stivers per pound, and the amount of the whole cargo, including the casks for the flour, wood for dunnage, hire of cooleys, and of craft for shipping the provisions, was thirty thousand four hundred and forty-one rix dollars and thirty-three stivers; which added to the freight (twenty-eight thousand rix dollars) made a total of fifty-eight thousand four hundred and forty-one rix dollars and thirty-three stivers, or £11,688 6s 9d sterling.
[* The flour, without the freight, including one hundred and ten rix dollars which were charged for twenty-two half leagers in which it was contained, amounted as nearly as possible to tenpence three farthings per pound.]
Mr. Ormsby, a midshipman from the Sirius, was left to come on with the snow, which it was hoped would sail in a few weeks after the Supply.
The criminal court was twice assembled during this month. At the first a soldier was tried for a felony, but acquitted. At the second William Harris and Edward Wildblood were tried for entering a hut at Parramatta, in which was only one man, and that a sick person, whom they knocked down, and then robbed the hut. They were clearly convicted of the offence, and, being most daring and flagrant offenders, were executed at Rose Hill, near the hut which they had robbed. These people had given a great deal of trouble before they committed the offence for which they suffered. At the latter end of the last month they took to the woods, having more than once or twice robbed their companions at Rose Hill. As they were well known, the watch soon brought them in to the settlement at Sydney. They confessed, that the night before they were apprehended they killed a goat belonging to Mr. White. The governor directed them immediately to be linked together by the leg, and sent them back to Rose Hill, there to labour upon bread and water. It was in this situation that, taking advantage of their overseer's absence for a few minutes, they went to the hut, of the situation of which they had previous knowledge, and robbed it of every thing they could carry away.
While these people were suffering the punishment they deserved, James Bloodworth, mentioned before in this narrative, received the most distinguishing mark of approbation which the governor had in his power to give him, being declared free, and at liberty to return to England whenever he should choose to quit the colony. Bloodworth had approved himself a most useful member of the settlement, in which there was not a house or building that did not owe something to him; and as his loss would be severely felt should he quit it while in its infancy, he bound himself by an agreement with the governor to work for two years longer in the colony, stipulating only to be fed and clothed during that time.
Encouraged by the facility with which Tarwood and his companions made their escape from the colony, some others were forming plans for a similar enterprise. A convict gave information that a scheme nearly ripe for execution was framed, and that the parties had provided themselves with oars, masts, sails, etc. for the purpose, which were concealed in the woods; and as a proof of the veracity of his account, he so clearly described the place of deposit, that on sending to the spot, four or five rude unfinished stakes were found, which he said were to be fashioned into oars. The person who gave the information dreaded so much being known as the author, that no further notice was taken of it than destroying the oars, and keeping a very vigilant eye on the conduct of the people who had been named by him as the parties in the business.
Attempts of this sort were always likely to be made, at least as long as any difficulty occurred in their quitting the colony after the term had expired for which by law they were sentenced to remain abroad. There must be many among them who would be anxious to return to their wives or children, or other relations, and who, perhaps, might not resort again to the companions of their idle hours. If these people found any obstacles in their way, they would naturally be driven to attempt the attainment of their wishes in some other mode; and it would then become an object of bad policy, as well as cruelty, to detain them.
The weather about this period was evidently becoming warmer every day; and although the trees never wholly lost their foliage, yet they gave manifest signs of the return of spring.
November.] James Williams, who was missing on the sailing of the Supply for Batavia, was found by Lieutenant Ball to have secreted himself on board that vessel, and on her return he delivered him up as a prisoner to the provost-marshal. Williams owned that his flight was to avoid a punishment which he knew awaited him; and Lieutenant Ball spoke so favourably of his conduct while he was under his observation, that the governor would have forgiven him, had he not feared that others might, from such an example, think to meet the same indulgence: he therefore directed him to receive two hundred and fifty lashes, half of the punishment which by the court that tried him he was sentenced to receive, and remitted the remainder.
A small boat belonging to Mr. White, which had been sent out with a seine, was lost this month somewhere about Middle Head. She had five convicts in her; and, from the reports of the natives who were witnesses of the accident, it was supposed they had crossed the harbour's mouth, and, having hauled the seine in Hunter's Bay, were returning loaded, when, getting in too close with the rocks and the surf under Middle Head, she filled and went down. The first information that any accident had happened was given by the natives, who had secured the rudder, mast, an oar, and other parts of the boat, which they had fixed in such situations as were likely to render them conspicuous to any boat passing that way. Mr. White and some other gentlemen, going down directly, found their information too true. One of the bodies was lying dead on the beach; with the assistance of Cole-be and the other natives he recovered the seine which was entangled in the rocks, and brought away the parts of his boat which they had secured.
This appeared to be a striking instance of the good effect of the intercourse which had been opened with these people; and there seemed only to be a good understanding between us and them wanting to establish an harmony which would have been productive of the best consequences, and might have been the means of preventing many of the unfortunate accidents that had happened. The governor, however, thought it necessary to direct, that offensive weapons should not be given to these people in exchange for any of their articles; being apprehensive that they might use them among themselves, and not wishing by any means to arm them against each other.
At Rose Hill a storehouse was begun and finished during the month, without any rain; its dimensions were one hundred feet by twenty-four feet. The bricks there, either from some error in the process, or defect in the clay, were not so good in quality as those made at Sydney. In their colour they were of a deep red when burned, but did not appear to be durable.
At Sydney, a good landing-place on the east side was completed; and two small brick huts, one for a cutler's shop, and another for the purpose of boiling oil or melting tallow, were built on the same side. A wharf was also marked out on the west side, which was to be carried far enough out into deep water to admit of the loaded hoy coming along-side at any time of tide. The hut, a brick one twelve feet square and covered with tiles, was finished for Bennillong, and taken possession of by him about the middle of the month.
Notwithstanding the accidents which had happened to many who had strayed imprudently beyond the known limits of the different settlements, two soldiers of the New South Wales corps, who had had every necessary caution given them on the arrival of their detachment at Rose Hill, strayed into the woods, and were missing for four or five days, in which time they had suffered severely from anxiety and hunger.
December.] The temporary barrack which had been erected within the redoubt at Rose Hill, formed only of posts and shingles nailed or fastened with pegs on battens, going fast to decay, and being found inadequate to guard against either the rain or wind of the winter months and the heat of those of the summer, the foundation of a range of brick buildings for the officers and soldiers stationed there was laid early in the month. The governor fixed the situation contiguous to the storehouse lately erected there, to which they might serve as a protection. They were designed for quarters for one company, with the proper number of officers, a guardroom, and two small store-rooms.
On the 10th, John McIntire, a convict who was employed by the governor to shoot for him, was dangerously wounded by a native named Pe-mul-wy*, while in quest of game in the woods at some considerable distance from the settlement. When brought in he declared, and at a time when he thought himself dying, that he did not give any offence to the man who wounded him; that he had even quitted his arms, to induce him to look upon him as a friend, when the savage threw his spear at about the distance of ten yards with a skill that was fatally unerring. When the spear was extracted, which was not until suppuration took place, it was found to have entered his body under the left arm, to the depth of seven inches and a half. It was armed for five or six inches from the point with ragged pieces of shells fastened in gum. His recovery was immediately pronounced by Mr. White to be very doubtful.
[* His name was readily obtained from the natives who lived among us, and who soon became acquainted with the circumstances.]
As the attack on this man was wanton, and entirely unprovoked on the part of McIntire, not only from his relation of the circumstance, but from the account of those who were with him, and who bore testimony to his being unarmed, the governor determined to punish the offender, who it was understood resorted with his tribe above the head of Botany Bay. He therefore directed that an armed party from the garrison should march thither, and either destroy or make prisoners of six persons (if practicable) of that tribe to which the aggressor belonged, carefully avoiding to offer any injury to either women or children. To this measure the governor resorted with reluctance. He had always wished that none of their blood might ever be shed; and in his own case, when wounded by Wille-me-ring, as he could not punish him on the spot, he gave up all thoughts of doing it in future. As, however, they seemed to take every advantage of unarmed men, some check appeared absolutely necessary. Accordingly, on Tuesday the 14th a party, consisting of two captains, Tench, of the marines, and Hill of the New South Wales corps, with two subalterns, three sergeants, two corporals, one drummer, and forty privates, attended by two surgeons, set off with three days' provisions for the purpose abovementioned.
There was little probability that such a party would be able so unexpectedly to fall in with the people they were sent to punish, as to surprise them, without which chance, they might hunt them in the woods for ever; and as the different tribes (for we had thought fit to class them into tribes) were not to be distinguished from each other, but by being found inhabiting particular residences, there would be some difficulty in determining, if any natives should fall in their way, whether they were the objects of their expedition, or some unoffending family wholly unconnected with them. The very circumstance, however, of a party being armed and detached purposely to punish the man and his companions who wounded McIntire, was likely to have a good effect, as it was well known to several natives, who were at this time in the town of Sydney, that this was the intention with which they were sent out.
On the third day after their departure they returned, without having wounded or hurt a native, or made a prisoner. They saw some at the head of Botany Bay, and fired at them, but without doing them any injury. Whenever the party was seen by the natives, they fled with incredible swiftness; nor had a second attempt, which the governor directed, any better success.
The governor now determining to avail himself as much as possible of the health and strength of the working convicts, while by the enjoyment of a full ration they were capable of exertion, resolved to proceed with such public buildings as he judged to be necessary for the convenience of the different settlements. Accordingly, during this month, the foundation of another storehouse was laid, equal in dimensions and in a line with that already erected on the east side of the cove at Sydney.
On the 17th the Dutch snow the Waaksamheyd anchored in the cove from Batavia, from which place she sailed on the 20th day of last September, meeting on her passage with contrary winds. She was manned principally with Malays, sixteen of whom she buried during the passage. Mr. Ormsby the midshipman arrived a living picture of the ravages made in a good constitution by a Batavian fever. He was in such a debilitated state, that it was with great difficulty he supported himself from the wharf on which he landed to the governor's house.
The master produced a packet from the sabandhaar (his owner) at Batavia, inclosing two letters to the governor, one written in very good English, containing such particulars respecting the vessel as he judged it for his interest to communicate; the other, designed to convey such information as he was possessed of respecting European politics, being written in Dutch, unfortunately proved unintelligible; and we could only gather from Mr. Ormsby and the master, who spoke bad English, that a misunderstanding subsisted between Great Britain and Spain; but on what account could not be distinctly collected.
On the first working day after her arrival the people were employed in delivering the cargo from the snow. The quantity of rice brought in her was found to be short of that purchased and paid for by Lieutenant Ball 42,900 weight, and the governor consented to receive in lieu a certain proportion of butter*, the master having a quantity of that article on board very good. This deficiency was ascertained by weighing all the provisions which were landed; a proceeding which the master acquiesced in with much reluctance and some impertinence.
[* One pound of butter to eighteen pounds of rice.]
The numbers who died by sickness in the year 1790, were two seamen, one soldier, one hundred and twenty-three male convicts, seven females, and ten children; in all, one hundred and forty-three persons.
In the above time four male convicts were executed; one midshipman, two soldiers, and six male convicts were drowned; one male convict perished in the woods, and two absconded from the colony, supposed to be secreted on board a transport; making a total decrease of one hundred and fifty-nine persons.
New Year's Day
A convict drowned
A native killed
Signal colours stolen
Supply sails for Norfolk Island
H. E. Dodd, Superintendant at Rose Hill, dies
Public works
Terms offered for the hire of the Dutch snow to England
The Supply returns
State of Norfolk Island
Fishing-boat overset
Excessive heats
Officers and seamen of the Sirius embark in the snow
Supply sails for Norfolk Island, and the Waaksamheyd for England
William Bryant and other convicts escape from New South Wales
Ruse, a settler, declares that he can maintain himself without assistance from the public stores
Ration reduced
Orders respecting marriage
Port regulations
Settlers
Public works
1791.]
January.] On the first day of the new year the convicts were excused from all kind of labour. At Rose Hill, however, this holiday proved fatal to a young man, a convict, who, going to a pond to wash his shirt, slipped from the side, and was unfortunately drowned.
The Indian corn beginning to ripen at that settlement, the convicts commenced their depredations, and several of them, being taken with corn in their possession, were punished; but nothing seemed to deter them, and they now committed thefts as if they stole from principle; for at this time they received the full ration, in which no difference was made between them and the governor, or any other free person in the colony. When all the provisions brought by the Dutch snow were received into the public stores, the governor altered the ration, and caused five pounds of rice to be issued in lieu of four pounds of flour, which were taken off.
Information having been received toward the close of the last month, that some natives had thrown a spear or fiz-gig at a convict in a garden on the west side, where they had met together to steal potatoes, the governor sent an armed party to disperse them, when a club being thrown by one of the natives at the party, the latter fired, and one man was wounded. This circumstance was at first only surmised, from tracing a quantity of blood from the spot to the water; but in a few days afterward the natives in the town told us the name of the wounded man, and added, that he was then dead, and to be found in a cove which they mentioned. On going to the place, a man well known in the town since the intercourse between us and his countrymen had been opened was found dead, and disposed of for burning. He had been shot under the arm, the ball dividing the subclavian artery, and Mr. White was of opinion that he bled to death.
It was much to be regretted that any necessity existed for adopting these sanguinary punishments, and that we had not yet been able to reconcile the natives to the deprivation of those parts of this harbour which we occupied. While they entertained the idea of our having dispossessed them of their residences, they must always consider us as enemies; and upon this principle they made a point of attacking the white people whenever opportunity and safety concurred. It was also unfortunately found, that our knowledge of their language consisted at this time of only a few terms for such things as, being visible, could not well be mistaken; but no one had yet attained words enough to convey an idea in connected terms. It was also conceived by some among us, that those natives who came occasionally into the town did not desire that any of the other tribes should participate in the enjoyment of the few trifles they procured from us. If this were true, it would for a long time retard the general understanding of our friendly intentions toward them; and it was not improbable but that they might for the same reason represent us in every unfavourable light they could imagine.
About the middle of the month a theft of an extraordinary nature was committed by some of the natives. It had been the custom to leave the signal colours during the day at the flagstaff on the South Head, at which place they were seen by some of these people, who, watching their opportunity, ran away with them, and they were afterwards seen divided among them in their canoes, and used as coverings.
On the 18th the Supply quitted the cove, preparatory to her sailing for Norfolk Island, which she did on the 22nd, having some provisions on board for that settlement. She was to bring back Captain Hunter, with the officers and crew of his Majesty's late ship Sirius. Her commander, Lieutenant Ball, labouring under a very severe and alarming indisposition, Mr. David Blackburn, the master, was directed by the governor to take charge of her until Mr. Ball should be able to resume the command.
The wound which McIntire had received proved fatal to him on the 22nd of this month. He had appeared to be recovering, but in the afternoon of that day died somewhat suddenly. On opening the body, the spear appeared to have wounded the left lobe of the lungs, which was found adhering to the side. In the cavity were discovered some of the pieces of stone and shells with which the weapon had been armed. This man had been suspected of having wantonly killed or wounded several of the natives in the course of his excursions after game; but he steadily denied, from the time he was brought in to his last moment of life, having ever fired at them but once, and then only in defence of his own life, which he thought in danger.
26th. Our colours were hoisted in the redoubt, in commemoration of the day on which formal possession was taken of this cove three years before.
On the night of the 28th Henry Edward Dodd, the superintendant of convicts employed in cultivation at Rose Hill, died of a decline. He had been ill for some time, but his death was accelerated by exposing himself in his shirt for three or four hours during the night, in search after some thieves who were plundering his garden. His body was interred in a corner of a large spot of ground which had been inclosed for the preservation of stock, whither he was attended by all the free people and convicts at Rose Hill. The services rendered to the public by this person were visible in the cultivation and improvements which appeared at the settlement where he had the direction. He had acquired an ascendancy over the convicts, which he preserved without being hated by them; he knew how to proportion their labour to their ability, and, by an attentive and quiet demeanor, had gained the approbation and countenance of the different officers who had been on duty at Rose Hill.
Mr. Thomas Clark, a superintendant who arrived here in the last year, was directed by the governor to carry on the duties with which Mr. Dodd had been charged, in which, it must be remarked, the care of the public grain was included.
At Rose Hill great progress was made in the building of the new barracks.
At Sydney, the public works in hand were, building the new storehouse, and two brick houses, one for the Rev. Mr. Johnson, and the other for Mr. Alt, the surveyor-general. These two buildings were erected on the east side of the cove, and in a line with those in the occupation of the commissary and judge-advocate.
February.] The master of the Dutch snow having received instructions from his owner, the sabandhaar at Batavia, to offer the vessel to the governor, either for sale or for hire, after she should be cleared of her cargo, mentioned the circumstance to his excellency, and proposed to him to sell the vessel with all her furniture and provisions for the sum of thirty-three thousand rix dollars, about £6,600, or to let her to hire at fifteen rix dollars per ton per month; in either of which cases a passage was to be provided for his people to the Cape of Good Hope. The governor was desirous of sending this vessel to England with the officers and people of the Sirius; but it was impossible to close with either of these offers, and he rejected them as unreasonable. Her master therefore dropped the vessel down to the lower part of the harbour, meaning to sail immediately for Batavia. Choosing, however, to try the success of other proposals, he wrote from Camp Cove to the secretary, offering to let the vessel for the voyage to England for twenty-thousand rix dollars, stipulating that thirty thousand rix dollars should be paid for her in the event of her being lost; the crew to be landed at the Cape, and himself to be furnished with a passage to England. On receiving this his second offer, the governor informed him, that instead of his proposal one pound sterling per ton per month should be given for the hire of the snow, to be paid when the voyage for which she was to be taken up should be completed. With this offer of the governor's, the master, notwithstanding his having quitted the cove on his first terms being rejected, declared himself satisfied, and directly returned to the cove, saluting with five guns on coming to an anchor.
In adjusting the contract or charter-party, the master displayed the greatest ignorance and the most tiresome perverseness, throwing obstacles in the way of every clause that was inserted. It was however at length finally settled and signed by the governor on the part of the crown, and by Detmer Smith, the master, on the part of his owners, he consenting to be paid for only three hundred tons instead of three hundred and fifty, for which she had been imposed upon Lieutenant Ball at Batavia. The carpenter of the Supply measured her in this cove.
Directions were now given for fitting her up as a transport to receive the Sirius's late ship's company and officers; and Lieutenant Edgar, who came out in the Lady Juliana transport, was ordered to superintend the fitting her, as an agent; in which situation he was to embark on board her and return to England.
26th. The Supply, after an absence of just five weeks, returned from Norfolk Island, having on board Captain Hunter, with the officers and people of the Sirius; and Lieutenant John Johnson of the marines, whose ill state of health would not permit him to remain there any longer.
We now found that our apprehensions of the distressed situation of that settlement until it was relieved were well founded. The supply of provisions which was dispatched in the Justinian and Surprise reached them at a critical point of time, there being in store on the 7th of August, when they appeared off the island, provisions but for a few days at the ration then issued, which was three pounds of flour and one pint of rice; or, in lieu of flour, three pounds of Indian meal or of wheat, ground, and not separated from the husks or the bran. Their salt provisions were so nearly expended, that while a bird or a fish could be procured no salt meat was issued. The weekly ration of this article was only one pound and an half of beef, or seventeen ounces of pork. What their situation might have been but for the providential supply of birds which they met with, it was impossible to say; to themselves it was too distressing to be contemplated. On Mount Pitt they were fortunate enough to obtain, in an abundance almost incredible, a species of aquatic birds, answering the description of that known by the name of the Puffin. These birds came in from the sea every evening, in clouds literally darkening the air, and, descending on Mount Pitt, deposited their eggs in deep holes made by themselves in the ground, generally quitting, them in the morning, and returning to seek their subsistence in the sea. From two to three thousand of these birds were often taken in a night. Their seeking their food in the ocean left no doubt of their own flesh partaking of the quality of that upon which they fed; but to people circumstanced as were the inhabitants on Norfolk Island, this lessened not their importance; and while any Mount Pitt birds (such being the name given them) were to be had, they were eagerly sought. The knots of the pine tree, split and made into small bundles, afforded the miserable occupiers of a small speck in the ocean sufficient light to guide them through the woods, in search of what was to serve them for next day's meal. They were also fortunate enough to lose but a few casks of the provisions brought to the island in the Sirius, by far the greater part being got safely on shore; but so hazardous was at all times the landing in Sydney Bay, that in discharging the two ships, the large cutter belonging to the Sirius was lost upon the reef, as she was coming in with a load of casks, and some women; by which accident, two seamen of the Sirius, of whom James Coventry, tried at Sydney in 1788, for assaulting McNeal on Garden Island, was one, three women, one child, an infant at the breast whose mother got safe on shore, and one male convict who swam off to their assistance, were unfortunately drowned. The weather, notwithstanding this accident, was so favourable at other times, that in one day two hundred and ninety casks of provisions were landed from the ships.
The experience of three years had now shown, that the summer was the only proper season for sending stores and provisions to Norfolk Island, as during that period the passage through the reef had been found as good, and the landing as practicable as in any cove in Port Jackson. But this was by no means certain or constant; for the surf had been observed to rise when the sea beyond it was perfectly calm, and without the smallest indication of any change in the weather. A gale of wind at a distance from the island would suddenly occasion such a swell, that landing would be either dangerous or impracticable.
It was matter of great satisfaction to learn, that the Sirius's people, under the direction of Captain Hunter, had been most usefully and successfully employed in removing several rocks which obstructed the passage through the reef; and that a correct survey of the island had been made by Lieutenant Bradley, by which several dangers had been discovered, which until then had been unknown.
The lieutenant-governor had, since taking upon him the command of the settlement, caused one hundred and fourteen acres of land to be cleared; and the late crops of maize and wheat, it was supposed, would have proved very productive had they not been sown somewhat too late, and not only retarded by too dry a season but infested by myriads of grubs and caterpillars, which destroyed every thing before them, notwithstanding the general exertions which were made for their extirpation. These vermin were observed to visit the island during the summer, but at no fixed period of that season.
Two pieces of very coarse canvas manufactured at Norfolk Island were sent to the governor; but, unless better could be produced from the looms than these specimens, little expectation was to be formed of this article ever answering even the common culinary purposes to which canvas can be applied.
Those officers who had passed some time in both settlements remarked, that the air of Norfolk Island was somewhat cooler than that of ours, here at Sydney; every breeze that blew being, from its insular situation, felt there.
Martial law continued in force until the supplies arrived; and of the general demeanor of the convicts during that time report spoke favourably.
The Lady Juliana, passing the island in her way to China, was the first ship that was seen; but, to the inexpressible disappointment and distress of those who saw her, as well as to the surprise of all who heard the circumstance, the master did not send a boat on shore. Nor were they relieved from their anxiety until two days had passed, when the other ships arrived.
This was the substance of the information received from Norfolk Island. From an exact survey which had been made, it was computed, that not more than between three and four hundred families could be maintained from the produce of the island; and that even from that number in the course of twenty years many would be obliged to emigrate.
On the Supply's coming to an anchor, the Sirius's late ship's company, whose appearance bore testimony to the miserable fare they had met with in Norfolk Island for several months, were landed, and lodged in the military or portable hospital, until the Waaksamheyd Dutch snow could be got ready to receive them.
William Bryant, who had been continued in the direction of the fishing-boat after the discovery of his malpractices, was, at the latter end of the month, overheard consulting in his hut after dark, with five other convicts, on the practicability of carrying off the boat in which he was employed. This circumstance being reported to the governor, it was determined that all his proceedings should be narrowly watched, and any scheme of that nature counteracted. The day following this conference, however, as he was returning from fishing with a boat-load of fish, the hook of the fore tack giving way in a squall of wind, the boat got stern-way, and filled, by which the execution of his project was for the present prevented. In the boat with Bryant was Bennillong's sister and three children, who all got safe on shore, the woman swimming to the nearest point with the youngest child upon her shoulders. Several of the natives, on perceiving the accident, paddled off in their canoes, and were of great service in saving the oars, mast, etc. and in towing the boat up to the cove.
In addition to other works in hand this month, the surveyor was employed in clearing and deepening the run of water which supplied the settlement at Sydney, and which, through the long drought, was at this time very low, although still sufficient for the consumption of the place. Fresh water was indeed every where very scarce, most of the streams or runs of water about the cove being dried up.
At Rose Hill the heat on the 10th and 11th of the month. on which days at Sydney the thermometer stood in the shade at 105 degrees, was so excessive (being much increased by the fire in the adjoining woods) that immense numbers of the large fox bat were seen hanging at the boughs of the trees, and dropping into the water, which, by their stench, was rendered unwholesome. They had been observed for some days before regularly taking their flight in the morning from the northward to the southward, and returning in the evening. During the excessive heat many dropped dead while on the wing; and it was remarkable, that those which were picked up were chiefly males. In several parts of the harbour the ground was covered with different sorts of small birds, some dead, and others gasping for water.
The relief of the detachment at Rose Hill unfortunately took place on one of these sultry days, and the officer having occasion to land in search of water was compelled to walk several miles before any could be found, the runs which were known being all dry; in his way to and from the boat he found several birds dropping dead at his feet. The wind was about north-west, and did much injury to the gardens, burning up every thing before it. Those persons whose business compelled them to go into the heated air declared, that it was impossible to turn the face for five minutes to the quarter from whence the wind blew.
8 a.m. 2 p.m, 10 p.m.
The greatest height of the thermometer
during this month was, 90 105 84
The least height of the thermometer
during this month was, 62 64½ 61
March.] On the 2nd of March Lieutenant Thomas Edgar hoisted a pendant on board the snow, in quality of naval agent, on which occasion she fired five guns. The preparations which were making on board that vessel were not completed until toward the latter end of the month, at which time the officers and seamen who were to go home in her were embarked.
Of the Sirius's late ship's company, ten seamen and two marines chose rather to settle here than return to their friends. Two of the seamen made choice of their lands in this country, the others in Norfolk Island. The majority of them had formed connections with women, for whose sake they consented to embrace a mode of life for which the natural restlessness of a sailor's disposition was but ill calculated. This motive, it is true, they disavowed; but one of the stipulations which they were desirous of making for themselves being the indulgence of having the women who had lived with them permitted still to do so, and it appearing not the least important article in their consideration, seemed to confirm the foregoing opinion.
The number of officers who were to embark was lessened by Mr. Jamison, the surgeon's mate of the Sirius, receiving the governor's warrant appointing him an assistant surgeon to the colony, in which capacity he was to be employed at Norfolk Island. For that settlement the Supply was now ready to sail; and on the 21st, one captain, two subalterns, one serjeant, one corporal, one drummer, and eighteen privates of the New South Wales corps, embarked on board that vessel, to relieve a part of the marine detachment doing duty there. Mr. Jamison and the ten settlers from the Sirius were also put on board, together with some stores that had been applied for. Allotments of sixty acres each were to be marked out for the settlers, which they were to possess under the same conditions as were imposed on settlers in this country.
The Supply sailed the following morning, carrying an instrument under the hand and seal of the governor, restoring to the rights and privileges of a free man John Ascott, a convict at Norfolk Island, who had rendered himself very conspicuous by his exertions in preventing the Sirius from being burnt soon after she was wrecked.
On Monday the 28th the Waaksamheyd transport sailed for England, having on board Captain Hunter, with the officers and crew of his majesty's late ship Sirius. By Captain Hunter's departure, which was regretted by every one who shared the pleasure of his society, the administration of the country would now devolve upon the lieutenant-governor, in case of the death or absence of the governor; a dormant commission having been signed by his majesty investing Captain Hunter with the chief situation in the colony in the event of either of the above circumstances taking place.
In the course of the night of the 28th, Bryant, whose term of transportation, according to his own account, expired some day in this month, eluded the watch that was kept upon him, and made his escape, together with his wife and two children (one an infant at the breast) and seven other convicts, in the fishing-boat, which, since the accident at the latter end of the last month, he had taken care to keep in excellent order. Their flight was not discovered until they had been some hours without the Heads.
They were traced from Bryant's hut to the Point, and in the path were found a hand-saw, a scale, and four or five pounds of rice, scattered about in different places, which, it was evident, they had dropped in their haste. At the Point, where some of the party must have been taken in, a seine belonging to government was found, which, being too large for Bryant's purpose, he had exchanged for a smaller that he had made for an officer, and which he had from time to time excused himself from completing and sending home.
The names of these desperate adventurers were,
Came in the first fleet, William Bryant, His sentence was expired. Mary Braud his wife, and two children, She had 2 years to serve. James Martin, He had 1 year to serve. James Cox, He was transported for life. Samuel Bird, He had 1 year and 4 months to serve. Came in the second fleet, William Allen, He was transported for life. Samuel Broom, He had 4 years and 4 months to serve. Nathaniel Lilly, He was transported for life. William Morton, He had 5 years and 1 month to serve.
So soon as it was known in the settlement that Bryant had got out of reach, we learned that Detmer Smith, the master of the Waaksamheyd, had sold him a compass and a quadrant, and had furnished him with a chart, together with such information as would assist him in his passage to the northward. On searching Bryant's hut, cavities under the boards were found, where he had secured the compass and such other articles as required concealment: and he had contrived his escape with such address, that although he was well known to be about making an attempt, yet how far he was prepared, as well as the time when he meant to go, remained a secret. Most of his companions were connected with women; but if these knew any thing, they were too faithful to those they lived with to reveal it. Had the women been bound to them by any ties of affection, fear for their safety, or the dislike to part, might have induced some of them to have defeated the enterprise; but not having any interest either in their flight, or in their remaining here, they were silent on the subject. For one young woman, Sarah Young, a letter was found the next morning, written by James Cox, and left at a place where he was accustomed to work in his leisure hours as a cabinet-maker, conjuring her to give over the pursuit of the vices which, he told her, prevailed in the settlement, leaving to her what little property he did not take with him, and assigning as a reason for his flight the severity of his situation, being transported for life, without the prospect of any mitigation, or hope of ever quitting the country, but by the means he was about to adopt. It was conjectured that they would steer for Timor, or Batavia, as their assistance and information were derived from the Dutch snow.
The situation of these people was very different from that of Tarwood and his associates, who were but ill provided for an undertaking so perilous; but Bryant had long availed himself of the opportunities given him by selling fish to collect provisions together, and his boat was a very good one, and in excellent order; so that there was little reason to doubt their reaching Timor, if no dissension prevailed among them, and they had but prudence enough to guard against the natives wherever they might land. William Morton was said to know something of navigation; James Cox had endeavoured to acquire such information on the subject as might serve him whenever a fit occasion should present itself, and Bryant and Bird knew perfectly well how to manage a boat. What story they could invent on their arrival at any port, sufficiently plausible to prevent suspicion of their real characters, it was not easy to imagine.
The depredations committed on the Indian corn at Rose Hill were so frequent and so extensive, that it became absolutely necessary to punish such offenders as were detected with a severity that might deter others; to this end, iron collars of seven pounds weight were ordered as a punishment for flagrant offenders, who were also linked together by a chain, without which precaution they would still have continued to plunder the public grounds. The baker at that settlement absconded with a quantity of flour with which he had been entrusted, belonging to the military on duty there, and other persons. He was taken some days afterward in the woods near Sydney. It must be remarked, however, that all these thefts were for the procuring of provisions, and that offences of any other tendency were very seldom heard of.
Some time in this month, James Ruse, the first settler in this country, who had been upon his ground about fifteen months, having got in his crop of corn, declared himself desirous of relinquishing his claim to any further provisions from the store, and said that he was able to support himself by the produce of his farm. He had shown himself an industrious man; and the governor, being satisfied that he could do without any further aid from the stores, consented to his proposal, and informed him that he should be forthwith put in possession of an allotment of thirty acres of ground in the situation he then occupied.
To secure our fresh water, which, though very low, might still be denominated a run, the governor caused a ditch to be dug on each side of it at some distance from the stream, and employed some people to erect a paling upon the bank, to keep out stock, and protect the shrubs within from being destroyed.
April.] The supplies of provisions which had been received in the last year not warranting the continuing any longer at the ration now issued, the governor thought it expedient to make a reduction of flour, rice, and salt provisions. Accordingly, on the first Saturday in this month each man, woman, and child above ten years of age, was to receive:
3 pounds of flour, 1 pound being taken off; 3 pounds of rice, ditto; 3 pounds of pork, ditto; or when beef should be served, 4½ pounds of beef, 2½ pounds being taken off.
A small proportion was to be given to children under ten years of age; and this ration the commissary was directed to issue until further orders. Of this allowance the flour was the best article; the rice was found to be full of weevils; the pork was ill-flavoured, rusty, and smoked; and the beef was lean, and, by being cured with spices, truly unpalatable. Much of both these articles when they came to be dressed could not be used, and, being the best that could be procured at Batavia, no inclination was excited by these specimens to try that market again.
It having been reported to the governor, that Bryant had been frequently heard to express, what was indeed the general sentiment on the subject among the people of his description, that he did not consider his marriage in this country as binding; his excellency caused the convicts to be informed, that none would be permitted to quit the colony who had wives or children incapable of maintaining themselves and likely to become burdensome to the settlement, until they had found sufficient security for the maintenance of such wives or children as long as they might remain after them. This order was designed as a check upon the erroneous opinion which was formed of the efficacy of Mr. Johnson's nuptial benediction; and if Bryant had thought as little of it as he was reported to do, his taking his wife with him could only be accounted for by a dread of her defeating his plan by discovery if she was not made personally interested in his escape.
This order was shortly after followed by another, limiting the length of such boats as should be built by individuals to fourteen feet from stem to stern, that the size of such boats might deter the convicts from attempts to take them off.
About this time some information being received, that it was in agitation to take away the sixteen-oared boat belonging to the colony, or some one or two of the smaller boats, a sentinel was placed at night on each wharf, and the officer of the guard was to be spoken to before any boat could leave the cove. In addition to this regulation, it was directed, that the names of all such people as it might be necessary to employ in boats after sun-set should be given in writing to the officer of the guard, to prevent any convicts not belonging to officers or to the public boats from taking them from the wharfs under pretence of fishing or other services.
Mr. Schaffer, who came out from England as a superintendent of convicts, finding himself, from not speaking the language (being a German) inadequate to the just discharge of that duty, gave up his appointment as a superintendant, and accepted of a grant of land; and an allotment of one hundred and forty acres were marked out for him on the south side of the creek leading to Rose Hill. On the same side of the creek, but nearer to Rose Hill, two allotments of sixty acres each were marked out for two settlers from the Sirius. On the opposite side the governor had placed a convict, Charles Williams, who had recommended himself to his notice by extraordinary propriety of conduct as an overseer, giving him thirty acres, and James Ruse received a grant of the same quantity of land at Rose Hill. These were all the settlers at this time established in New South Wales; but the governor was looking out for some situations in the vicinity of Rose Hill for other settlers, from among the people whose sentences of transportation had expired.
During this month the governor made an excursion to the westward, but he reached no farther than the banks of the Hawkesbury, and returned to Rose Hill on the 6th, without making any discovery of the least importance. At that settlement, the Indian corn was nearly all gathered off the ground; but it could not be said to have been all gathered in, for much of it had been stolen by the convicts. So great a desire for tobacco prevailed among these people, that a man was known to have given the greatest part of his week's provisions for a small quantity of that article; and it was sold, the produce of the place, for ten and even fifteen shillings per pound. The governor, on being made acquainted with this circumstance, intimated an intention of prohibiting the growth of tobacco, judging it to be more for the true interest of the people to cultivate the necessaries than the luxuries of life.
The public works at Rose Hill consisted in building the officers barracks; a small guardhouse near the governor's hut; a small house for the judge-advocate (whose occasional presence there as a magistrate was considered necessary by the governor), and for the clergyman; and in getting in the Indian corn.
At Sydney, the house for the surveyor-general was covered in; and the carpenters were employed in finishing that for the clergyman. Bricks were also brought in for a house for the principal surgeon, to be built near the hospital on the west side.
Many thefts, and some of money, were committed during the month at both settlements. A hut belonging to James Davis, employed as a coxswain to the public boats, was broken into; but nothing was stolen, Davis having taken his money with him, and nothing else appearing to have been the object of their search. His hut was situated out of the view of any sentinel, and a night was chosen for the attempt when it was known that he was on duty at Rose Hill.
A Musket found by a native
Reports of plans to seize boats
Supply arrives from Norfolk Island
The King's birthday
A canoe destroyed
Its evil effects
Corn sown
Battery begun
One hundred and forty acres inclosed for cattle
The Mary Ann arrives
Two criminal courts held
Ration improved
The Matilda arrives
The Mary Ann sails for Norfolk Island
Settlers
The Atlantic and Salamander arrive
Full ration issued
The William and Ann arrives
Natives
Public works
May.] Cole-be, the native who since our communication with these people had attached himself to Mr. White, the principal surgeon, made his appearance one morning in the beginning of the month with a musket, which, on diving into the sea for something else, he had brought up with him. It was supposed to have been lost from Mr. White's boat in November last at the lower part of the harbour.
The scheme for seizing one of the boats was resumed in this month, and appeared to be in great forwardness. The boat however was changed, the long-boat being chosen instead of that which was at first thought of. She was to be seized the first time she should be employed in towing the boy with provisions to Rose Hill; out of which they were to take what quantity they required for their purpose, land the crew, and run her ashore. On receiving this information, the governor, instead of sending the hoy up with different species of provisions, caused her to be loaded with rice, and a small quantity of flour, in some measure to defeat their scheme, at least for that time, as the information did not state that they had collected any salt provisions. She was accordingly dispatched with flour and rice, and returned safely, no attempt having been made to stop her. It was then said, that they were at a loss for a person to navigate her; and that a deposit of powder and ball was made at a farm near the brick-fields; where however, on searching, nothing of the kind was found. Various other reports were whispered during the month, which, whether founded in truth or not, had this good effect, that every necessary precaution was taken to prevent their succeeding in any attempt of that kind which they might be desperate enough to make.
Much anxiety was excited on account of the long and unusual absence of the Supply, which sailed for Norfolk Island on the 22nd day of March, and did not return to this harbour until the 30th of this month, which completed ten weeks within a day since she sailed. Contrary winds and heavy gales had prevented her arrival at the time she might have been reasonably expected. She was three weeks in her passage hither, and was blown off the island for eleven days.
Captain Johnston, Lieutenants Creswell and Kellow, one sergeant, one corporal, one drummer, and twenty privates of the marine detachment, arrived in the Supply; with two prisoners, one a soldier for some irregularity of conduct when sentinel, the other a convict.
The weather had been as dry at Norfolk Island as it had been here; which, with the blighting winds, had considerably injured all the gardens, and particularly some crops of potatoes. Of the great fertility of the soil every account brought the strongest confirmation; and by attending to the proper season for sowing, it was the general opinion that two crops of corn might be got off in a year.
Their provisions, like ours, were again at so low an ebb, that the lieutenant-governor had reduced the ration. The whole number victualled when the Supply sailed amounted to six hundred and twenty-nine persons; and for that number there were in store at the full ration, flour and Indian corn for twenty weeks, beef for eighteen weeks, and pork for twenty-nine weeks; and these, at the ration then issued, would be prolonged, the grain to twenty-seven, the beef to forty-two, and the pork to twenty-nine weeks.
It must however be remarked, that the ration at Norfolk Island was often uncertain, being regulated by the plenty or scarcity of the Mount Pitt birds. Great numbers of these birds had been killed for some time before the Supply sailed thence; but they were observed about that time to be quitting the island.
On board the Supply were some planks, and such part of the stores belonging to the Sirius as the lieutenant-governor could get on board. That ship had not then gone to pieces; the side of her which was on the reef was broken in and much injured, but the side next the sea (the larboard side) appeared fresh and perfect.
At Sydney, by an account taken at the latter end of the month of the provisions then remaining in store, there appeared to be at the ration then issued of
Flour and rice 40 weeks, a supply till 31st March 1792; Beef 12 weeks, a supply till 31st August 1791; Pork 27 weeks, a supply till 21st December 1791.
In this account the rice and flour were taken together as one article, but the rice bore by far the greatest proportion.
It was remarked by many in the settlement, that both at Sydney and at Rose Hill the countenances of the labouring convicts indicated the shortness of the ration they received; this might be occasioned by their having suffered so much before from the same cause, from the effects of which they had scarcely been restored when they were again called upon to experience the hardship of a reduced ration of provisions. The convicts who arrived in June had not recovered from the severity of their passage to this country.
It having been said that James Ruse, who in March last had declared his ability to support himself independent of the store, was starving, the governor told him, that in consideration of his having been upon a short allowance of provisions during nearly the whole of the time he had been cultivating ground upon his own account, the storekeeper should be directed to supply him with twenty pounds of salt provisions. The man assured his excellency that he did not stand in need of his bounty, having by him at the time a small stock of provisions; a quantity of Indian corn (which he found no difficulty in exchanging for salt meat) and a bag of flour; all which enabled him to do so well, that he absolutely begged permission to decline the offer. So very contradictory was his own account of his situation to that which had been reported.
The barracks at Rose Hill, being so far completed as to admit of being occupied, were taken possession of this month by the New South Wales corps.
Several thefts of provisions were committed; two, that were of some consequence, appeared as if the provisions had been collected for some particular purpose; and, if so, perhaps only passed from the possession of one thief to that of another. While a stalk of Indian corn remained upon the ground, the convicts resolved to plunder it, and several were severely punished; but it did not appear that they were amended by the correction, nor that others were deterred by the example of their punishment. So truly incorrigible were many of these people!
Finishing the clergyman's and surveyor's houses; bringing in bricks for other buildings; posts and paling for a fence round the run of water; and making clothing for the people, occupied the convicts at Sydney.
June.] The bad weather met with by the Supply during her late voyage to Norfolk Island had done her so much injury, that, on a careful examination of her defects, it appeared that she could not be got ready for sea in less than three months. In addition to other repairs which were indispensable, her main mast was found so defective, that after cutting off eighteen feet from the head of it and finding the heel nearly as bad, the carpenter was of opinion that she must be furnished with an entire new mast. This, when the difficulty of finding timber for her foremast (which, it must be remarked, bore the heavy gales of wind she met with, as well as could be desired even of wood the fittest for masts) was recollected, was an unlucky and an ill-timed want; for, should it happen that supplies were not received from England by the middle or end of the month of July, the services of this vessel would be again required; and, to save the colony, she must at that time have been dispatched to some settlement in India for provisions. She was therefore forthwith hauled along side the rocks, and people were employed to look for sound timber fit for a mast.
On his Majesty's birthday an extra allowance of provisions was issued to the garrison and settlements; each man receiving one pound of salt meat, and the like quantity of rice; each woman half a pound of meat and one pound of rice; and each child a quarter of a pound of meat and half a pound of rice. And to make it a cheerful day to every one, all offenders who had for stealing Indian corn been ordered to wear iron collars were pardoned.
The town which had been marked out at Rose Hill, and which now wore something of a regular appearance, on this occasion received its name. The governor called it Parramatta, being the name by which the natives distinguished the part of the country on which the town stood.
Notwithstanding the lenity and indulgence which had been shown on his Majesty's birthday, in pardoning the plunderers of gardens and the public grounds, and by issuing an extra allowance of provisions to every one, the governor's garden at Parramatta was that very night entered and robbed by six men, who assaulted the watchman, Thomas Ocraft, and would have escaped all together, had he not, with much resolution, secured three of them for punishment.
Indulgences of this nature were certainly thrown away upon many who partook of them;