Chapter III
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.
Chapter IV
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.
Chapter V
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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter VI
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. On 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.
Chapter VII
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.
Chapter VIII
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. 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.
Chapter IX
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.