passage from the Cape of Good Hope was the most rapid that had ever been made, being only five weeks and three days from port to port.
On board of the _Royal Admiral_ came stores and provisions for the colony; one sergeant, one corporal, and nineteen privates, belonging to the New South Wales corps; a person to be employed in the cultivation of the country; another as a master miller; and a third as a master carpenter; together with two hundred and eighty-nine male and forty-seven female convicts. She brought in with her a fever, which had been much abated by the extreme attention paid by Captain Bond and his officers to cleanliness, the great preservative of health on board of ships, and to providing those who were ill with comforts and necessaries beyond what were allowed for their use during the passage. Of three hundred male convicts which she received on board, ten only died, and one made his escape from the hospital at False Bay; in return for whom, however, Captain Bond brought on with him Thomas Watling, a male convict, who found means to get on shore from the _Pitt_ when at that port in December last, and who had been confined by the Dutch at the Cape town from her departure until this opportunity offered of sending him hither.
We had the satisfaction of hearing that the _Supply_ armed tender made good her passage to England in somewhat less than five months, arriving at Plymouth on the 21st of April last. It was, however, matter of much concern to all who were acquainted with him, to learn at the same time, that Captain Hunter, who sailed from this port in March 1791, in the Dutch snow _Waaksamheyd_, and who had anxiously desired to make a speedy passage, had been thirteen months in that vessel striving to reach England, where he at last let go his anchor a day after the termination of Lieutenant Ball’s more successful voyage in the _Supply_, arriving at Spithead on the evening of the 22nd of April last. His Majesty’s ship _Gorgon_ had been at the Cape of Good Hope, but had not arrived in England when the _Royal Admiral_ left that country.
We were also informed, that the _Kitty_ transport had sailed with provisions and a few convicts from England some weeks before the _Royal Admiral_; and Captain Bond left at False Bay an American brig, freighted on speculation with provisions for this colony, and whose master intended putting to sea immediately after him.
The sick, to the number of eighty, were all immediately disembarked from the Indiaman; the remainder of her convicts were sent up to be employed at Parramatta and the adjoining settlement. At these places was to be performed the great labour of clearing and cultivating the country; and thither the governor judged it necessary at once to send such convicts as should arrive in future, without permitting them to disembark at Sydney, which town (from the circumstance of its being the only place where shipping anchored) possessed all the evils and allurements of a sea port of some standing, and from which, if once they got into huts, they would be with difficulty removed when wanted; they pleaded the acquirement of comforts, of which, in fact, it would be painful though absolutely necessary to deprive them. At once to do away therefore the possibility of any attachment to this part of the colony, the governor gave directions for their being immediately sent from the ship to the place of their future residence and employment; and, having no other thoughts, they went with cheerfulness.
There arrived in the _Royal Admiral_ as a superintendant charged with the care of the convicts, Mr. Richard Alley, who formerly belonged to the _Lady Juliana_ transport, in quality of surgeon, in the memorable voyage of that ship to this colony; a voyage that could never be thought on by an inhabitant of it without exciting a most painful sensation. This gentleman went to England in the snow with Captain Hunter, whither the comforts of long voyages seemed to accompany him. Immediately on his arrival there, he was appointed by the commissioners of the navy to come out in the _Royal Admiral_ as surgeon and superintendant of the convicts embarked in that ship, with an allowance of twelve shillings and sixpence _per diem_ until his arrival in England, exclusive of his half pay as surgeon of the navy.
It had always been an object of the first consequence, that the people employed about the stores, if not free, should at least have been so situated as to have found it their interest to resist temptation. This had never hitherto been accomplished; capital and other exemplary punishments did not effect it; the stores were constantly robbed, although carefully watched, and as well secured as bolts, locks, and iron fastenings could make them. The governor therefore now adopted a plan which was suggested to him; and, discharging all the convicts employed at the provision-store, replaced them by others, to whom he promised absolute emancipation at the end of a certain number of years, to be computed from the dates of their respective arrivals in this country.
If any thing could produce the integrity so much to be desired, this measure seemed the best calculated for the purpose; an interest was created superior to any reward that could have been held out, a certain salary, an increase of ration, a greater proportion of clothing, or even emancipation itself, if given at the time. To those who had no other prospect but that of passing their lives in this country, how cheering, how grateful must have been the hope of returning to their families at no very distant period, if not prevented by their own misconduct! There were two in this situation among those placed at the stores, Samuel Burt and William Sutton, both of whom had conducted themselves with the greatest propriety since their conviction, and who beheld with joy the probability that appeared of their being again considered and ranked in the class of honest men and good members of society; estimations that depended wholly upon themselves.
As a store-keeper was a person on whom much dependence must necessarily be placed, it being his duty to be constantly present whenever the stores were opened, and with a vigilant eye to observe the conduct of the inferior servants, at the strong recommendation of the officers under whom he had served, Sergeant Thomas Smyth was discharged from the marine detachment, and placed upon the list of superintendants of convicts as a storekeeper. This appointment gave general satisfaction; and the commissary now felt himself, under all these arrangements, more at ease respecting the safety of the stores and provisions under his charge.
On the night of the 10th a daring burglary was committed. Mr. Raven, the master of the _Britannia_, occupied a hut on shore, which was broken open and entered about midnight, and from the room in which he was lying asleep, and close to his bedside, his watch and a pair of knee-buckles were stolen; a box was forced open, in which was a valuable timepiece and some money belonging to Mr. Raven, who, fortunately waking in the very moment that the thief was taking it out at the door, prevented his carrying it off. Assistance from the guard came immediately, but too late–the man had got off unseen. In a day or two afterwards, however, Charles Williams, a settler, gave information that a convict named Richard Sutton, the morning after the burglary, had told him that he had stolen and secured the property, which he estimated at sixty pounds, and which he offered to put into his possession for the purpose of sale, first binding him by a horrid ceremony* and oath not to betray him. Williams, on receiving the watch, which proved a metal one, worth only about ten pounds, and the disproportion of which to the value he had expected, probably had induced him to make the discovery, immediately caused him to be taken into custody, and delivered the property to a magistrate, giving at the same time an account how he came by them. All these circumstances were produced in evidence before a criminal court; but the prisoner, proving an _alibi_ that was satisfactory to the court, was acquitted. With the evidence that he produced in his defence it was impossible to convict him; but the court and the auditors were in their consciences persuaded that the prisoner had committed the burglary and theft, and that he intended to have employed Williams to dispose of the property; which the latter had undertaken, and would have performed, had the watch proved to have been a timepiece which the prisoner imagined he had been lucky enough to secure. Williams, had he been put to prove where he was at the very time the house was entered, had people ready to depose that he was on his way by water to his farm near Parramatta. This man had formerly been remarkable for propriety of conduct; but, after he became a settler, gave himself up to idleness and dissipation, and went away from the court in which he had been giving his testimony, much degraded in the opinion of every man who heard him.
[* They cut each other on the cheek with their knives.]
The _Britannia_ sailed on the 24th for the Cape of Good Hope, Mr. Raven taking with him Governor Phillip’s dispatches for England, in which was contained a specific demand for twelve months provisions for the colony, and the wishes as well of those whom he considered as his employers, as of those who were not, for the safe and speedy execution of his commission; as his return to the colony would introduce many articles of comfort which were not to be found in the public stores among the articles issued by government.
At Sydney and at Parramatta shops were opened for the sale of the articles of private trade brought out in the _Royal Admiral_. A licence was given for the sale of porter; but, under the cover of this, spirits found their way among the people, and much intoxication was the consequence. Several of the settlers, breaking out from the restraint to which they had been subject, conducted themselves with the greatest impropriety, beating their wives, destroying their stock, trampling on and injuring their crops in the ground, and destroying each other’s property. One woman, having claimed the protection of the magistrates, the party complained of, a settler, was bound over to the good behaviour for two years, himself in twenty pounds, and to find two sureties in ten pounds each. Another settler was at the same time set an hour in the stocks for drunkenness. The indulgence which was intended by the governor for their benefit was most shamefully abused; and what he suffered them to purchase with a view to their future comfort, was retailed among themselves at a scandalous profit; several of the settlers houses being at this time literally nothing else but porter-houses, where rioting and drunkenness prevailed as long as the means remained. It was much to be regretted that these people were so blind to their own advantage, most of them sacrificing to the dissipation of the moment what would have afforded them much comfort and convenience, if reserved for refreshment after the fatigue of the day.
The only addition made to the weekly ration in consequence of the arrival of the _Royal Admiral_ was an allowance of six ounces of oil to each person; a large quantity, nine thousand two hundred and seventy-eight gallons, having been put on board that ship and the _Kitty_ transport, to be issued in lieu of butter; as an equivalent for which it certainly would have answered well, had it arrived in the state in which it was reported to have been put on board; but it grew rancid on the passage, and was in general made more use of to burn as a substitute for candles, than for any other purposes to which oil might have been applied.
Toward the latter end of the month, the convicts received a general serving of clothing, and other necessary articles. To each male were issued two frocks made of coarse and unsubstantial osnaburgs, in which there were seldom found more than three weeks wear; two pairs of trousers made of the same slight materials as the frocks, and open to the same observation as to wear; one pair of yarn stockings; one hat; one pair of shoes; one pound of soap; three needles; a quarter of a pound of thread, and one comb.
The females received each one cloth petticoat; one coarse shift; one pair of shoes; one pair of yarn stockings; one pound of soap; a quarter of a pound of thread; two ounces of pins; six needles; one thimble, and one pair of scissors.
These articles were supplied by commission; and Mr. Davison, the person employed by government, was limited in the price of each article, which was fixed too low to admit of his furnishing them of the quality absolutely necessary for people who were to labour in this country. The osnaburgs in particular had always been complained of, for it was a fact, that the frocks and trousers made of them were oftener known to have been worn out within a fortnight, than to have lasted three weeks.
The month closed with a circumstance that excited no small degree of concern in the settlement: Governor Phillip signified a determination of quitting his government, and returning to England in the _Atlantic_. To this he was induced by perceiving that his health hourly grew worse, and hoping that a change of air might contribute to his recovery. His Excellency had the satisfaction, at the moment that he came to this resolution, of seeing the public grounds wear every appearance of a productive harvest. At Toongabbie, forty-two acres of wheat, sown about the middle of last March, looked as promising as could be wished; the remainder of the wheat, from being sown six weeks later, did not look so fine and abundant, but still held out hopes of an ample return. The Indian corn was all got into the ground, and such of it as was up looked remarkably well.
CHAPTER XIX
A vessel from America arrives
Part of her cargo purchased
George Barrington and others emancipated conditionally The _Royal Admiral_ sails
Arrival of the _Kitty_ Transport
L1001 received by her
Hospital built at Parramatta
Harvest begun at Toongabbie
Ration increased
The _Philadelphia_ sails for Norfolk Island State of the cultivation previous to the governor’s departure Settlers
Governor Phillip sails for England
Regulations made by the Lieutenant Governor The _Hope_, an American Ship, arrives
Her cargo purchased for the colony
The _Chesterfield_ whaler arrives
Grant of land to an officer
Extreme heat and conflagration
Deaths in 1792
Prices of Stock, etc
November.] On the 1st of November, about eleven o’clock at night, the _Philadelphia_ brigantine, Mr. Thomas Patrickson master, anchored in the cove from Philadelphia. Lieutenant-governor King, on his passage to this country in the _Gorgon_ in the month of July 1791, had seen Mr. Patrickson at the Cape of Good Hope, and learning at that time from the _Lady Juliana_ and _Neptune_ transports, which had just arrived there from China, that the colony was in great distress for provisions, suggested to him the advantage that might attend his bringing a cargo to this country on speculation. On this hint Captain Patrickson went to England, and thence to Philadelphia, from which place he sailed the beginning of last April with a cargo consisting chiefly of American beef, wine, rum, gin, some tobacco, pitch, and tar. He sailed from Philadelphia with thirteen hands; but, in some very bad weather which he met with after leaving the African shore, his second mate was washed overboard and lost, it blowing too hard to attempt saving him.
The governor directed the commissary to purchase such part of the _Philadelphia’s_ cargo as he thought was immediately wanting in the colony; and five hundred and sixty-nine barrels of American cured beef, each barrel containing one hundred and ninety-three pounds, and twenty-seven barrels of pitch and tar, were taken into store; the expense of which amounted to L2829 lls.
Notwithstanding the great length of time Captain Patrickson had been on his voyage (from the beginning of April to November) his speculation did not prove very disadvantageous to him. A great part of his cargo, that was not taken by government, was disposed of among the officers and others of the settlement; and the governor hired his vessel to take provisions to Norfolk Island, giving him L150 for the run. Captain Patrickson had formed some expectation of disposing of his vessel in this country; but the governor, having received intimation that the _Kitty_ might be detained in the service as long as he found it necessary after her arrival, did not judge it expedient to purchase the vessel.
On the 3rd of the month three warrants of emancipation passed the seal of the territory: one to John Trace, a convict who came out in the first fleet; having but three months of his term of transportation remaining, that portion of it was given up to him, that he might become a settler. The second was granted to Thomas Restil (alias Crowder) on the recommendation of the lieutenant-governor of Norfolk Island, on condition that he should not return to England during the term of his natural life, his sentence of transportation being _durante vitae_. The third warrant was made out in favour of one who whatever might have been his conduct when at large in society, had here not only demeaned himself with the strictest propriety, but had rendered essential services to the colony–George Barrington. He came out in the _Active_; on his arrival the governor employed him at Toongabbie, and in a situation which was likely to attract the envy and hatred of the convicts, in proportion as he might be vigilant and inflexible. He was first placed as a subordinate, and shortly after as a principal watchman; in which situation he was diligent, sober, and impartial; and had rendered himself so eminently serviceable, that the governor resolved to draw him from the line of convicts; and, with the instrument of his emancipation, he received a grant of thirty acres of land in an eligible situation near Parramatta.* Here was not only a reward for past good conduct, but an incitement to a continuance of it; and Barrington found himself, through the governor’s liberality, though not so absolutely free as to return to England at his own pleasure, yet enjoying the immunities of a free man, a settler, and a civil officer, in whose integrity much confidence was placed.
[* He was afterwards sworn in as a peace officer.]
On the 13th the _Royal Admiral_ sailed for Canton. Of the private speculation brought out in this ship, they sold at this place and at Parramatta to the amount of L3600 and left articles to be sold on commission to the amount of L750 more.
Captain Bond was obliged to leave behind him one of his quartermasters and six sailors, who ran away from the ship. The quartermaster had served in the same capacity on board of the _Sirius_, and immediately after his arrival in England (in the snow) engaged himself with Captain Bond for the whole of the voyage; but a few days before the departure of the ship from this port, he found means to leave her, and, assisted by some of the settlers, concealed himself in the woods until concealment was no longer necessary. On giving himself up, he entered on board the _Atlantic_; but on his declaring that he did not intend returning to England, the governor ordered him into confinement. The sailors were put into one of the longboats, to be employed between this place and Parramatta, until they could be put on board a ship that might convey them hence.
It was never desirable that seamen should receive encouragement to run from their ships; they became public nuisances here; the masters of such ships would find themselves obliged to procure convicts at any rate to supply their places; indeed, so many might be shipped or secreted on board, as might render the safety of the vessel very precarious; and as the governor determined to represent the conduct of any master who carried away convicts without his approbation, so he resolved never to deprive them of their seamen. Under this idea, a hut, in which a seaman from the _Royal Admiral_ was found concealed, was pulled down, and two convicts who had been secreted on board that ship were sent up to Toongabbie, as a punishment, as well as to be out of the way of another attempt.
On the 18th the _Kitty_ transport anchored in the cove from England, after a circuitous passage of thirty-three weeks, round by the Rio de Janeiro and the Cape of Good Hope. She twice sailed from England. On her first departure, which was in March last, she had on board thirty female and ten male convicts; but being obliged to put back to Spithead, to stop a leak which she sprung in her raft port, eight of her ten male convicts found means to make their escape. This was an unfortunate accident; for they had been particularly selected as men who might be useful in the colony. Of the two who did remain, the one was a brick-maker and the other a joiner.
When her cargo was landing, it was found to have suffered considerably by the bad weather she had experienced; the flour in particular, an article which could at no time bear any diminution in this country, was much damaged. The convicts had for a long time been nearly as much distressed for utensils to dress their provisions, as they had been for provisions; and we had now the mortification to find, that of the small supply of iron pots which had been put on board, a great part were either broken or cracked, having been literally stowed among the provision casks in the hold.
There arrived in this ship two chests, containing three thousand eight hundred and seventy ounces of silver, in dollars, amounting to L1001. This remittance was sent out for the purpose of paying such sums as were due to the different artificers who had been employed in this country. It was also applied to the payment of the wages due to the superintendants, who had experienced much inconvenience from not receiving their salaries here; and indeed the want of public money had been very much felt by every one in the colony. When the marines, who became settlers before and at the relief of the detachment, were discharged for that purpose, they would have suffered great difficulties from the want of public money to pay what was due to them, had not the commissary taken their respective powers of attorney, and given them notes on himself, payable either in cash, or in articles which might be the means of rendering them comfortable, and of which he had procured a large supply from Calcutta. These notes passed through various hands in traffic among the people of the description they were intended to serve, and became a species of currency which was found very convenient to them.
The female convicts who arrived in the _Kitty_, twenty-seven in number, were immediately sent up to Parramatta.
Government had put on board the _Kitty_ a naval agent, Lieutenant Daniel Woodriff, for the purpose of seeing that no unnecessary delays were made in the voyage, and that the convicts on board were not oppressed by the master or his people. This officer, on his arrival, stated to the governor his opinion that the master had not made the best of his way, and that he had remained longer in the port of Rio de Janeiro than there could possibly be occasion for. He likewise stated several disagreements which had occurred between him and the master, and in which the latter seemed to think very lightly of the authority of a naval agent on board his ship. There was also on board this ship, on the part of the crown, a medical gentleman who was appointed for the express purpose of attending to such convicts as might be ill during the voyage; so extremely solicitous were the members of Administration to guard against the evils which had befallen the convicts in former passages to this country.
At Parramatta a brick hospital, consisting of two wards, was finished this month; and the sick were immediately removed into it. The spot chosen for this building was at some distance from the principal street of the town, and convenient to the water; and, to prevent any improper communication with the other convicts, a space was to be inclosed and paled in round the hospital, in which the sick would have every necessary benefit from air and exercise.
At the other settlement they had begun to reap the wheat which was sown in April last; and for want of a granary at that place it was put into stacks. From not being immediately thrashed out, there was no knowing with certainty what the produce of it was; but it had every appearance of turning out well. The ear was long and full, and the straw remarkably good.
December.] On the 3rd of this month, the governor, as one of his last acts in the settlement, ordered one pound of flour to be added to the weekly ration, which, by means of this addition, stood on his departure at 3 pounds of flour, 5 pounds of rice, 4 pounds of pork or 7 pounds of beef, 3 pounds of dholl, and 6 ounces of oil.
On the 7th the _Philadelphia_ sailed for Norfolk Island, having on board for that settlement Mr. Grimes, the deputy surveyor; Mr. Jamieson who was to superintend the convicts employed there in cultivations; Mr. Peat, the master-carpenter (there being a person* in that situation here of much ability); a convict who came out in the _Royal Admiral_, to be employed as a master-tailor; two Convicts sawyers, and one convict carpenter, the same who came out with his family in the _Kitty_; together with some provisions and stores. His excellency had always attended to this little colony with a parental care; often declaring, that from the peculiarity of its situation he would rather that want should be felt in his own government than in that dependency; and as they would be generally eight or ten weeks later than this colony in receiving their supplies, by reason of the time which the ships necessarily required to refit after coming in from sea, he purposed furnishing them with a proportion of provisions for three months longer than the provisions in store at this place would last: and his excellency took leave of that settlement, by completing, as fully as he was able, this design.
[* Mr. Thomas Livingstone, at a salary of L50 per annum.]
He was now about taking leave of his own government. The accommodations for his excellency and the officers who were going home in the _Atlantic_ being completed, the detachment of marines under the command of Lieutenant Poulden embarked on the 5th, and at six o’clock in the evening of Monday the 10th Governor Phillip quitted the charge with which he had been entrusted by his Sovereign, and in the execution of which he had manifested a zeal and perseverance that alone could have enabled him to surmount the natural and artificial obstacles which the country and its inhabitants had thrown in his way.
The colony had now been established within a few weeks of five years; and a review of what had been done in cultivation under his excellency’s direction in that time cannot more properly be introduced than at the close of his government.
Previous to the sailing of the _Britannia_ on the 24th of last October, an accurate survey of the whole ground in cultivation, both on account of the crown, and in the possession of individuals, was taken by the surveyor-general, and transmitted to England by that ship; and from the return which he then made, the following particulars were extracted:
GROUND IN CULTIVATION, THE 16TH OCTOBER 1792 ———————————————————————– Acres Acres Acres Ground Total in in in Garden cleared number wheat barley maize ground of timber of acres ———————————————————————– At Parramatta 3/4 71/2 308 – – 3161/4 At and leading to 1711/2 14 511 – – 6961/2 Toongabbie
Total public ground 1721/4 211/2 819 – – 10123/4
_Belonging to Settlers and others_
At Parramatta, (1
The governor’s garden – 1/2 2 (3 vines – 61/2 Garden ground belonging to
different people, including
convicts’ gardens – – – 104 – 104 At Parramatta, 1 settler 3 – 18 1 7 29 At Prospect Hill, four miles
to the westward of
Parramatta, 18 settlers 111/4 – 84 – – 951/4 At the Ponds, two miles to
the northeast of
Parramatta, 16 settlers 101/4 21/4 63 31/2 161/2 951/2 At the Northern boundary
farms, two miles from
Parramatta, 5 settlers 3 – 35 23/4 11 513/4 At the Field of Mars, on
the north shore, near the
entrance of the creek
leading to Parramatta,
8 settlers, (marines) 4 – 441/2 2 31 811/2 At the Eastern farms,
12 settlers – – 401/2 – 121/2 53 On the creek leading to
Parramatta, 7 settlers 43/4 – 801/2 4 22 1111/4 In cultivation by the civil
and military at Sydney – – – – 61/2 61/2 ———————————————————————– Total 2081/2 241/4 11861/2 1211/4 1621/2 1703 ———————————————————————–
Of the sixty-seven settlers above enumerated, one, James Ruse, who had a grant of thirty acres at Parramatta, went upon his farm the latter end of November 1789; but none of the others began to cultivate ground upon their own accounts earlier than the middle of July 1791; but many of them at a much later date. The eight marine settlers at the Field of Mars took possession of their allotments at the beginning of February 1792. The conditions held out to settlers were, to be victualled and clothed from the public store for eighteen months from the term of their becoming settlers; to be furnished with tools and implements of husbandry; grain to sow their grounds, and such stock as could be spared from the public. They were likewise to have assigned them the services of such a number of convicts as the governor should think proper, on their making it appear that they could employ, feed, and clothe them. Every man had a hut erected on his farm at the public expense. At the time of the governor’s departure, many of them, by their own industry, and the assistance he had afforded them, were enabled to have one or two convicts off the store, and employed by them at their farms; and such as were not married were allowed a convict hutkeeper. In general they were not idle, and the major part were comfortably situated.
At this time the quantity of land which had passed to settlers* in this territory under the seal of the colony amounted to three thousand four hundred and seventy acres; of which quantity four hundred and seventeen acres and a half were in cultivation, and the timber cleared from one hundred more, ready for sowing; which, compared with the total of the _public ground_ in cultivation (one thousand and twelve acres and three quarters) will be found to be by eleven acres more than equal to one half of it. A striking proof of what some settlers had themselves declared, on its being hinted to them that they had not always been so diligent when labouring for the whole, ‘We are now working for ourselves.’ One material good was, however, to be expected from a tract of land of that extent being cultivated by individuals, if at any time an accident should happen to the crop on the public ground, they might be a resource, though an inconsiderable one. Fortunately, no misfortune of that nature had ever fallen upon the colony; but it had been, at the beginning of this month, very near experiencing a calamity that would have blasted all the prospects of the next season, and in one moment have rendered ineffectual the labour of many hands and of many months. Two days after the wheat had been reaped, and got off the ground at Toongabbie, the whole of the stubble was burnt. The day on which this happened had been unusually hot, and the country was every where on fire. Had it befallen us while the wheat was upon the ground, nothing could have saved the whole from being destroyed. From this circumstance, however, one good resulted; precautions against a similar accident were immediately taken, by clearing the timber for a certain distance round the cultivated land.
[* Some few had been added since the surveyor’s return of the 16th October.]
The stock belonging to the public was kept at Parramatta. It consisted of three bulls*, two bull calves, fifteen cows, three calves, five stallions, six mares, one hundred and five sheep, and forty-three hogs.
[* Two from Calcutta, and one which was calved on board the _Gorgon_.]
Of the sheep, the governor gave to each of the married settlers from the convicts, and to each settler from the marines, and from the _Sirius_, one ewe for the purpose of breeding; and to others he gave such female goats as could be spared. This stock had been procured at much expense; and his excellency hoped that the people among whom he left it would see the advantage it might prove to them, and cherish it accordingly.
His excellency, at embarking on board the _Atlantic_, was received near the wharf on the east-side, (where his boat was lying), by Major Grose, at the head of the New South Wales corps, who paid him, as he passed, the honors due to his rank and situation in the colony. He was attended by the officers of the civil department, and the three marine officers who were to accompany him to England.
At daylight on the morning of the 11th, the _Atlantic_ was got under way, and by eight o’clock was clear of the Heads, standing to the ESE with a fresh breeze at south. By twelve o’clock she had gained a considerable offing.
With the governor there embarked, voluntarily and cheerfully, two natives of this country, Bennillong and Yem-mer-ra-wan-nie, two men who were much attached to his person; and who withstood at the moment of their departure the united distress of their wives, and the dismal lamentations of their friends, to accompany him to England, a place that they well knew was at a great distance from them.”
One or two convicts also who had conducted themselves to his satisfaction, and whose periods of transportation were expired, were permitted by the governor to return to England in the same ship with himself.
The _Atlantic_ had likewise on board various specimens of the natural productions of the country, timber, plants, animals, and birds. Among the animals were four fine kangaroos, and several native dogs.
The _Atlantic_ had been put into excellent condition for the voyage which she had to perform; she was well found and well manned, and there appeared no reason to doubt her reaching England in six months from her departure. A safe and speedy passage to her was the general wish, not only on account of the governor, whose health and constitution (already much impaired) might suffer greatly by the fatigues of a protracted voyage; but that the information of which his excellency was in possession respecting these settlements, from their establishments to the moment of his quitting them, might as quickly as possible be laid before administration.
The government of the colony now devolved, by his Majesty’s letters patent under the great seal of Great Britain, upon the lieutenant-governor. This office was filled by the major-commandant of the New South Wales corps, Francis Grose, esq who arrived in February last in the _Pitt_ transport. At his taking upon himself the government, on which occasion the usual oaths were administered by the judge-advocate, he gave out the following order, regulating the mode of carrying on the duty at Parramatta:
‘All orders given by the captain who commands at Parramatta, respecting the convicts stationed there, are to be obeyed; and all complaints or reports that would be made to the lieutenant-governor when present, are in his absence to be communicated to captain Foveaux, or such other captain as may be doing duty with the detachment.’
The alteration which this order produced, consisted in substituting the military for the civil officer. Before this period, all complaints had been inquired into by the civil magistrate, who, in the governor’s absence from Parramatta, punished such slight offences as required immediate cognizance, reporting to the governor from time to time whatever he did; and all orders and directions which regarded the convicts, and all reports which were made respecting them, went through him.
The military power had hitherto been considered as requisite only for the protection of the stores, and the discharge of such duties as belonged to their profession, without having any share in the civil direction of the colony*; but as it was provided by his Majesty’s commission already spoken of, that, in case, of the death or absence both of the governor and lieutenant-governor of the territory, the officer next in rank on service in the colony should take upon himself and exercise the functions of the governor, until such time as instructions should be received from England; under this idea, the lieutenant-governor issued the above order, placing the captain commanding the detachment of the New South Wales corps at Parramatta, in the direction of the civil duties of that settlement.
[* The commanding officer of the corps or regiment serving in the territory excepted, who held likewise the _civil_ appointment of lieutenant-governor.]
Similar regulations took place at Sydney, where ‘the captain of the day was directed to report to the commanding officer all convict prisoners, stating by whom and on what account they might be confined;’ and this order was in a few days after enforced by another, which directed ‘that all inquiries by the civil magistrate were in future to be dispensed with, until the lieutenant-governor had given directions on the subject; and the convicts were not on any account to be punished but by his particular order.’
At Sydney, it had been usual for the magistrates to take examinations, and make enquiry into offences, either weekly, or as occasion required, and to order such punishment as they thought necessary, always reporting their proceedings to the chief authority.
It must be noticed, that at this time the civil magistrates in the colony consisted of the lieutenant-governor and the judge-advocate, who were justices of the peace by virtue of their respective commissions; the Rev. Mr. Johnson; Augustus Alt and Richard Atkins*, Esquires, who had been sworn in as magistrates by authority of the governor.
[* This gentleman had been appointed registrar of the court of vice-admiralty by Governor Phillip.]
As no inconvenience had ever been experienced in the mode which was practised of conducting the business of the settlement, the necessity or cause of these alterations was not directly obvious, and could not be accounted for from any other motive than that preference which a military man might be supposed to give to carrying on the service by means of his own officers, rather than by any other.
On Saturday the 15th the convicts received their provisions according to the ration that was issued before the governor’s departure; but on the Monday following, the usual day of serving provisions to the civil and military, a distinction was made, for the first time, in the ration they received; the commissary being directed to issue to the officers of the civil and military departments, the soldiers, superintendants, watchmen, overseers, and settlers from the marines, six pounds of flour, and but two pounds of rice per man, per week, instead of three pounds of flour, and five pounds of rice, which was the allowance of the convicts. This distinction was intended to be discontinued whenever the full ration could be served.
The stock which had been distributed among the married settlers and others by Governor Phillip for the purpose of breeding from (as has been already observed) appeared to have been thrown away upon them when viewed as a breeding stock for settlers. No sooner had the _Atlantic_ sailed, than the major part of them were offered for sale; and there was little doubt (many of their owners making no scruple to publish their intentions) that had they not been bought by the officers, in a very few weeks many of them would have been destroyed. By this conduct, as far as their individual benefit was concerned, they had put it out of their own power to reap any advantage from the governor’s bounty to them; but the stock by this means was saved, and had fallen into hands that certainly would not wantonly destroy it. There were a few among the settlers who exchanged their sheep for goats, deeming them a more profitable stock; but, in general, spirits were the price required by the more ignorant and imprudent part of them; and several of their farms, which had been, and ought to have always been, the peaceful retreats of industry, were for a time the seats of inebriety and consequent disorder.
About this time there anchored in the cove an American ship, the _Hope_, commanded by a Mr. Benjamin Page, from Rhode island, with a small cargo of provisions and spirits for sale. The cause of his putting into this harbour, the master declared, was for the purpose of procuring wood and water, of which he stated his ship to be much in want; thus making the sale of his cargo appear to be but a secondary object with him.
As the colony had not yet seen the day when it could have independently said, ‘We are not in want of provisions; procure your wood and your water, and go your way,’ the lieutenant-governor directed the commissary to purchase such part of his cargo as the colony stood in need of; and two hundred barrels of American cured beef, at four pounds per barrel; eighty barrels of pork, at four pounds ten shillings per barrel; forty-four barrels of flour, at two pounds per barrel; and seven thousand five hundred and ninety-seven gallons of (new American) spirits at four shillings and sixpence per gallon, were purchased; amounting in all to the sum of L2957 6s 6d.
This ship had touched at the Falkland Islands for the purpose of collecting skins from the different vessels employed in the seal trade from the United States of America, with which she was to proceed to the China market. From the Cape of Good Hope her passage had been performed in two months and one day. The master said, he found the prevailing winds were from the NW and described the weather as the most boisterous he had ever known for such a length of time. By one sea, his caboose was washed over the side, and one of his people going with it was drowned. He observed, when about the South-cape of this country, that the weather was clear; but after passing the latitude of the Maria Islands, he found it close, hazy, and heated, and had every appearance of thick smoke. About that time we had the same sort of weather here; and the excessive heats which at other times have been experienced in the settlements have been also noticed at sea when at some distance from the land.
By this ship we were not fortunate enough to receive any European news. The master saw only one English ship at the Cape, the _Chesterfield_ whaler, commanded by a Mr. Alt, who had formerly been a midshipman in his Majesty’s ship _Sirius_, and who went home on board of the _Neptune_ transport.”
In a few days after the arrival of the _Hope_, the signal was again made at the South Head, and in a few hours the _Chesterfield_, the ship just mentioned to us by the American, anchored in the cove. She sailed from the Cape of Good Hope shortly after Mr. Page; and the master said he touched at Kerguelan’s Land, where, some other ship having very recently preceded him (which he judged from finding several sea elephants dead on the beach, and a club which is used in killing them) he remained but a short time, having very bad weather. He supposed the ship which preceded him to have been the first which had visited those desolate islands since Captain Cook had been there, as he found the fragments of the bottle in which that officer had deposited a memorial of his having examined them. This was conjecture and might be erroneous, as the mere pieces of the bottle afforded no proof that it had been recently broken.
Mr. Alt spoke of meeting with very bad weather, and of his ship having thereby suffered such injury, that he was compelled on the representation of his people to put in here for the purpose of getting repairs. Indeed her appearance very amply justified their representations; and it was a wonder how she had swam so far, for her complaints must have been of very long standing.
To expedite the building of the new barracks, which formed the most material labour at Sydney, two overseers and forty men were sent down from Parramatta. One barrack being now completed, towards the latter end of the month it was occupied by Captain George Johnston, a party-wall having been thrown down adapting the building to the accommodation of one instead of two officers.
On the last day of the month, two warrants of emancipation passed the seal of the territory, together with a grant of twenty-five acres of land to Ensign Cummings of the New South Wales corps. In the instructions for granting lands in this country, no mention of officers had yet been made; it was however fairly presumed that the officers could not be intended to be precluded from the participation of any advantages which the crown might have to bestow in the settlements; particularly as the greatest in its gift, the free possession of land, was held out to people who had forfeited their lives before they came into the country.
Among the regulations which took place at Sydney, must be noticed the dispensing with the officer’s guard which had always mounted there; and the changing the hours of labour. The convicts now had more time given to them, for the purpose not only of avoiding the heat of the day, but of making themselves comfortable at home. They were directed to work from five in the morning until nine; rest until four in the afternoon, and then labour until sun-set.
The _Kitty_, having delivered her cargo, began to prepare for taking some stores and provisions and a detachment of the New South Wales corps to Norfolk Island.
The weather during this month was very hot. The 5th was a day most excessively sultry. The wind blew strong from the northward of west; the country, to add to the intense heat of the atmosphere, was everywhere on fire. At Sydney, the grass at the back of the hill on the west side of the cove, having either caught or been set on fire by the natives, the flames, aided by the wind which at that time blew violently, spread and raged with incredible fury. One house was burnt down, several gardens with their fences were destroyed; and the whole face of the hill was on fire, threatening every thatched hut with destruction. The conflagration was with much difficulty (notwithstanding the exertions of the military) got under, after some time, and prevented from doing any further mischief. At different times during this uncomfortable day distant thunder was heard, the air darkened, and some few large drops of rain fell. The apparent danger from the fires drew all persons out of their houses; and on going into the parching air, it was scarcely possible to breathe; the heat was insupportable; vegetation seemed to suffer much, the leaves of many culinary plants being reduced to a powder. The thermometer in the shade rose above one hundred degrees. Some rain falling toward evening, the excessive heat abated.
At Parramatta and Toongabbie also the heat was extreme; the country there too was every where in flames. Mr. Arndell was a great sufferer by it. The fire had spread to his farm; but by the efforts of his own people and the neighbouring settlers it was got under, and its progress supposed to be effectually checked, when an unlucky spark from a tree, which had been on fire to the topmost branch, flying upon the thatch of the hut where his people lived, it blazed out; the hut with all the out-buildings, and thirty bushels of wheat just got into a stack, were in a few minutes destroyed. The erecting of the hut and out-houses had cost L15 a short time before.
The day preceding that of the excessive heat, James Castles, an industrious and thriving settler at Prospect Hill, had his hut accidentally burnt down, with all his comforts, and three bushels of wheat which he had just reaped. The governor ordered his hut to be rebuilt, and every assistance given which the stores afforded to repair his loss.
There died between the 1st of January and 31st of December 1792, two of the civil department, six soldiers, four hundred and eighteen male convicts, eighteen female convicts, and twenty-nine children; one male convict was executed; and three male convicts were lost in the woods; making a decrease by death of four hundred and eighty-two persons.
The following were the prices of stock, grain, and other articles, as they were sold at Sydney, and at Parramatta, at the close of the year:
AT SYDNEY
Maize per lb. 3d
Rice per lb 3d
Peas or dholl from 11/2d to 2d per lb. Flour 9d per lb.
Potatoes 3d per lb.
Sheep L10 10s each.
Milch goats from L8 8s to L10 10s
Kids from L2 10s to L4
Breeding sows from L6 6s to L7 7s and L10 10s Young ditto from L3 to L4
Laying hens 10s
Full grown fowls from 5s to 7s 6d
Chickens 1s 6d
Fresh pork per lb 1s
Prime salt pork from 6d to 8d
Salt beef 4d
Eggs per dozen from 2s to 3s
Moist sugar per lb 1s 6d
Tea from 8s to 16s
Soap 1s
Butter from 1s 6d to 2s
Cheese from 1s 6d to 2s
Hams from 1s 6d to 2s
Bacon from 1s 6d to 2s
AT PARRAMATTA
Maize per lb. 3d
Rice per lb. 3d
Peas or dholl 2d per lb.
Flour 6d per lb
Potatoes 2d per lb
Sheep L10 10s each
Milch goats from L5 5s to L10
Breeding sows from L6 6s to L10 10s Pigs of a month old 12s
Laying hens from 7s to 10s
Full grown fowls from 7s to 10s
Chickens 1s 6d
Fresh pork per lb 1s
Prime salt pork 6d
Salt beef 4d
Eggs per dozen 2s
Moist sugar per lb 1s 6d
Tea from 6s to 16s
Soap 1s
Coffee 2s
Tobacco, American Brazil, 4s
Tobacco of the colony 2s
The price of fish and vegetables varied from day to day; spirits in exchange were estimated at from twelve to twenty shillings per gallon; porter was sold from nine to ten pounds per hogshead, or from one shilling to one shilling and three pence per quart.
It did not appear that the settlers had brought any new wheat or other grain to market.
CHAPTER XX
Order respecting spirits
Seamen punished
Convicts enlisted into the new corps Regulations respecting Divine Service
The _Hope_ sails
The _Bellona_ arrives
Cargo damaged
Information
Two women and a child drowned
The _Kitty_ sails for Norfolk Island Ration
An Officer sent up to inspect the cultivation at Parramatta A theft committed
Works
Kangaroo Ground opened
Settlers
Liberty Plains
Conditions
_Bellona_ sails
Transactions
The _Shah Hormuzear_ from Calcutta arrives Information received by her
The dholl expended
Sickness and death occasioned by the American spirits The _Chesterfield_ sent to Norfolk Island Convicts sell their clothing
Two Spanish ships arrive
Information
Epitaph
A Criminal Court
The _Kitty_ returns from Norfolk Island Fraud at the store at Parramatta
1793.]
January.] The lieutenant-governor having directed the commissary to dispose of the spirits purchased from the American to the military and civil officers of the colony, in which were included the superintendants, and some others in that line, it was found that it had been purchased by many individuals of the latter description with the particular view of retailing it among the convicts. He therefore found it necessary to declare in public orders, ‘That it was his intention to make frequent inquiries on the subject; and it might be relied upon, that if it ever appeared that a convict was possessed of any of the liquor so supplied by the commissary, the conduct of those who had thought proper to abuse what was designed as an accommodation to the officers of the garrison, would not be passed over unnoticed.’
Some such order had indeed become very necessary; for the American spirit had by some means or other found its way among the convicts; and, a discreet use of it being wholly out of the question with those people, intoxication was become common among them. The free use of spirits had been hitherto most rigidly prohibited in the colony; that is to say, it was absolutely forbidden to the convicts. It might therefore have been expected, that when that restraint was in ever so small a degree removed, they would break out into acts of disorder and contempt of former prohibitions. It was therefore indispensable to the preservation of peace and good order in the settlement, to prevent, if possible, the existence of so great an evil as drunkenness; which, if suffered, would have been the parent of every irregularity. The fondness expressed by these people for even this pernicious American spirit was incredible; they hesitated not to go any lengths to procure it, and preferred receiving liquor for labour, to every other article of provisions or clothing that could be offered them.
The master of the _Kitty_ having represented to the lieutenant-governor that the conduct of his ship’s company was at times so irregular and mutinous (some of them refusing to do their duty, going on shore and taking boats from the ship without permission) that he found it impossible to carry on the business of the ship, unless he could receive some assistance from the civil authority, the lieutenant-governor directed one, of whom the master particularly complained, Benjamin Williams, to receive one hundred lashes, and another, Adams, to receive twenty-five lashes. This in some measure checked the spirit of disobedience in the ship, and the duty was carried on better than before. Her preparations for Norfolk Island however went on but slowly, four or five of her hands having left her. These, together with some other seamen who had been left behind from the _Royal Admiral_, were either employed in the public boats belonging to the colony, or had entered into the New South Wales corps; into which corps also several convicts of good character had been lately received, to complete the company that had been formed from the marines under the command of Captain Johnston. This company was a valuable addition, being composed of many excellent soldiers from the marines; who entered into it voluntarily, and whose conduct had met the entire approbation of their officers.
On the departure of the governor, the house that he had lived in was taken possession of by the oldest captain of the corps, his apartments in the officers quarters being confined, and tumbling to pieces.
Divine service was now performed at six o’clock in the morning. For want of a building dedicated to that purpose, many inconveniences were suffered, as well by the clergyman as by those who attended him. The lieutenant-governor therefore did not require the ceremony to be performed more than once a day; and that the health of the convicts might not be injured from the heat of the sun, which at this season of the year was excessive, he directed the church call to be beat at a quarter before six in the morning. The overseers were enjoined to be particularly careful to collect as many of their gangs to attend Mr. Johnson as could conveniently be brought together; for, although it was not wished that the huts should be left without proper persons to look after them, it was nevertheless expected, that no idle excuses should keep the convicts from attending divine service.
On the 10th the _Hope_ sailed for Canton, the master having been allowed to ship three convicts, whose sentences of transportation had expired; viz Murphy, a sail-maker; Sheppard, a joiner; and Bateman, a lad who had been employed as an attendant on an officer.
At six o’clock in the evening of Tuesday the 15th, the signal which always gave satisfaction in the colony was made at the South Head; several boats went down, but when night closed it was only known that a ship was off. A large fire for the information of the stranger was made at the South Head; and at about ten o’clock the following morning, the _Bellona_ transport, Mr. Mathew Boyd commander, anchored in the cove from England; from which place she sailed on the 8th day of August last, having on board a cargo of stores and provisions for the colony; seventeen female convicts; five settlers, and their families; Thorpe, a person engaged as a master millwright at a salary of L100 per annum; and Walter Broady, who returned to New South Wales to be employed in his former capacity of master blacksmith. The quaker families which had been expected for some time past had engaged to take their passage in the _Bellona_; but it was said, that they had been diverted from their purpose by some misrepresentations which had been made to them respecting this country.
Among other articles now received were five pipes of port wine and a quantity of rum, which were consigned to the governor for the purpose of being sold to the officers of the civil and military establishments at prime cost; and three thousand pounds of tobacco for the use of the soldiers of the garrison and others.
The shameful impositions which had been practised by many who had brought out articles for sale in the colony, and the advantage which had been taken in too many instances of our necessities, had been properly stated at home, and this measure had been adopted by Government for our accommodation. The wine was immediately distributed; coming to the officer, after every expense of wharfage, etc. at L19 10s per hogshead, and the rum at five shillings per gallon. The tobacco was likely to remain for some time undisposed of, as a quantity had been lately brought into the settlement, and was selling at a lower price than could be taken for that imported by this ship; and tobacco formed a material article of the different investments in the _Britannia_.
With great pleasure we also found that Government, in consequence of the representations of Governor Phillip, had directed a strong substantial Russia duck to be substituted for the slight unserviceable Osnaburgs with which the convicts had been hitherto supplied.
We learned by the _Bellona_, that his Majesty’s ship _Gorgon_ arrived at Spithead on the 19th of June last. In her passage, which she made by Cape Horn, on the 18th of February last, being in the latitude of 51 degrees 30 minutes S and longitude 34 degrees 07 minutes W variation 13 degrees 37 minutes E she fell in with twenty-nine islands of ice. When the ship reached within three or four miles of the first of these islands, they observed one compact body, without the smallest appearance of any opening, bearing from NNE to WNW and which with some difficulty, being embayed*, they were enabled to clear, by hauling the ship from N to WSW. This was done at ten in the forenoon; they did not reach the extreme western point of the ice until five in the evening; and from the rate at which the ship sailed, from her coming up with the first island of ice, until she cleared the north-west point of the field abovementioned, it was computed that she had run full twenty leagues.
[* When near this great body of ice, the thermometer was as low as thirty-six degrees; and it rose from that point, as she drew off, to forty degrees.]
It must be remarked, that the _Sirius_, in the month of December 1788, saw several islands of ice in nearly the same latitude and longitude.
At the Cape of Good Hope Captain Parker had met with Captain Edwards of the _Pandora_, who delivered to him Mary Braud, the widow of Bryant, who escaped to Timor in the fishing cutter, with one of the children, and only four of the male convicts who accompanied Bryant in his flight. Bryant died at Batavia, with the other child, and two of his companions; one of them, James Cox, was said to be drowned in the Straits of Sunda. On their arrival in England the story of their sufferings in the boat excited much compassion; and, before the _Bellona_ sailed, they had been brought up to the bar of the Old Bailey, and ordered by the court to remain in Newgate until the period of their original sentence of transportation should expire, there to finish their unsuccessful attempts to regain their liberty.
While the cargo of the _Bellona_ was landing much of it was found to be damaged; the ship had been overloaded, and had met with very boisterous weather on her passage. This practice of crowding too much into one ship had in many instances been very prejudicial to the colony; in the present instance, of the Russia duck, which was excellent in its kind, and which had cost the sum of L6636 0s 9d; sixty-eight bales, containing thirteen thousand one hundred and forty-eight yards, were damaged; sixty-nine casks of flour also were found to be much injured. Of seventy-six hogsheads of molasses, eleven hundred and seventy-two gallons were found to have leaked out; one cask of pork was stinking and rotten; seventy-nine gallons of rum, and one hundred and ninety-eight gallons of wine, were deficient, owing to improper stowage; three hundred and thirty-five hammocks, thirteen rugs, five hundred and twenty-seven yards of brown cloths, and one case of stationary, were rendered totally unfit for use. Of the articles thus found to be unserviceable to the colony, there was not one which in its proper state would not have been valuable; and when the expense attending their conveyance, the risk of the passage, the inconvenience that must be felt from the want of every damaged article, and the impossibility of getting them replaced for a great length of time, were considered, it was difficult to ascertain their precise value.
Among the occurrences of this month one appears to deserve particular notice. On Friday the 18th, Eleanor McCave, the wife of Charles Williams, the settler, was drowned, together with an infant child, and a woman of the name of Green. These unfortunate people had been drinking and revelling with Williams the husband and others at Sydney, and were proceeding to Parramatta in a small boat, in which was a bag of rice belonging to Green. The boat heeling considerably, and some water getting at the bag, by a movement of Green’s to save her rice the boat overset near Breakfast Point, and the two women and the child were drowned. If assistance could have been obtained upon the spot, the child might have been saved; for it was forced from the wretched mother’s grasp just before she finally sunk, and brought on shore by the father; but for want of medical aid it expired. The parents of this child were noted in the colony for the general immorality of their conduct; they had been rioting and fighting with each other the moment before they got into the boat; and it was said, that the woman had imprecated every evil to befal her and the infant she carried about her (for she was six months gone with child) if she accompanied her husband to Parramatta. The bodies of these two unfortunate women were found a few days afterwards, when the wretched and rascally Williams buried his wife and child within a very few feet of his own door. The profligacy of this man indeed manifested itself in a strange manner: a short time after he had thus buried his wife, he was seen sitting at his door, with a bottle of rum in his hand, and actually drinking one glass and pouring another on her grave until it was emptied, prefacing every libation by declaring how well she had loved it during her life. He appeared to be in a state not far from insanity, as this anecdote certainly testifies; but the melancholy event had not had any other effect upon his mind.
The _Kitty_ transport being ready for sea, on Sunday the 20th two subalterns, three sergeants, three corporals, one drummer, and sixty privates, of the New South Wales corps, were embarked, for the purpose of relieving the detachment from that corps now on duty at Norfolk Island under the command of a captain, who received orders to return to this settlement.
On board of this ship were also embarked, Mr. Clarke, the deputy-commissary for Norfolk Island; Mr. Peate, the master carpenter, who came out in the _Royal Admiral_; two coopers; two tailors; two officers’ servants; John Chapman Morris, Benjamin Ingram (pursuant to the conditional pardon which he received from Governor Phillip), and a few women: and on the 25th she sailed.
On Saturday the 26th, the rice being expended, the convicts received three pounds of flour, and the civil and military one pound of flour in addition to the former allowance.
In the course of this month the lieutenant-governor judged it necessary to send an officer to Parramatta, whom he could entrust with the direction of the convicts employed there and at Toongabbie in cultivation, as well as to take charge of the public grain. This business had always been executed by one of the superintendants, under the immediate inspection and orders of the governor, who latterly had dedicated the greatest part of his time and attention to these settlements. But it was attended with infinite fatigue to his excellency; and the business had now grown so extensive, that it became absolutely necessary that the person who might have the regulation of it should reside upon the spot, that he might personally enforce the execution of his orders, and be at all times ready to attend to the various applications which were constantly making from settlers.
The lieutenant-governor, therefore (his presence being required at Sydney, the head-quarters of his regiment, and the seat of the government of the country) deputed this trust to Lieutenant John Macarthur, of the New South Wales corps; the superintendants, storekeepers, overseers, and convicts at the two settlements, being placed under his immediate inspection.
Charles Gray, a man who had rendered himself notorious in the registers of this colony by repeated acts of villainy, exhibited himself again to public view at the close of this month, and at a time when every one thought him a reclaimed man. He had been sent to Norfolk Island as a place where he would have fewer opportunities of exercising his predatory abilities than at Sydney; but the law having spent its force against him, he returned to this settlement as a free man in September last. On his declaring that he was able to provide for himself, he was allowed to work for his own support, and for some time past he had cut wood and drawn water for a drummer in the New South Wales corps, a man who, by much self-denial and economy, had got together and laid up thirty-three guineas, for the prudent and laudable purpose of hereafter apprenticing his children; but having unfortunately and most indiscreetly suffered this man to know, not only that he had such a sum, but where he kept it, Gray availed himself of a convenient opportunity, and carried off the whole sum, together with a shirt which lay in his way. On being taken up (for suspicion was directly fixed on him) he readily acknowledged the theft, and either was, or pretended to be, very much in liquor. On being urged to restore the property, he sent the watchmen to search for it in different places, but without directing them to the spot where he had concealed it. At last he was taken out himself, when accidentally meeting the lieutenant-governor he threw himself on the ground, pretending to be in a fit; on which he was directly ordered to be tied up and punished with one hundred lashes. After this he would not make any discovery, and was sent to the hospital. The drummer who had suffered so materially by this wretch, although the object of pity, yet, knowing as he must have done the character of the man, was certainly entitled to no small degree of blame for trusting with a secret of such importance to his family a man who he must have known could not have withstood so great a temptation.
The lieutenant-governor proposing to open and cultivate the ground commonly known by the name of the Kangaroo Ground, situate to the westward of the town of Sydney between that settlement and Parramatta, a gang of convicts was sent from the latter place for that purpose. The soil here was much better for agriculture than that immediately adjoining to the town of Sydney, and the ground lay well for cultivation; but it had hitherto been neglected, from its being deficient in the very essential requisite of water; on which account Parramatta had been preferred to it. The eligibility of cultivating it was however now going to be tried; and, permission having been received by the _Bellona_ to grant lands to those officers who might desire it, provided the situations of the allotments were such as might be advantageous to _bona fide_ settlers hereafter, if they ever should fall into such hands, several officers chose this as the spot which they would cultivate, and allotments of one hundred acres each were marked out for the clergyman (who, to obtain a grant here, relinquished his right to cultivate the land allotted for the maintenance of a minister), for the principal surgeon, and for two officers of the corps.
February.] The settlers who came out in the _Bellona_ having fixed on a situation at the upper part of the harbour above the Flats, and on the south side, their different allotments were surveyed and marked out; and early in this month they took possession of their grounds. Being all free people, one convict excepted, who was allowed to settle with them, they gave the appellation of ‘_Liberty Plains_’ to the district in which their farms were situated. The most respectable of these people, and apparently the best calculated for a _bona fide_ settler, was Thomas Rose, a farmer from Dorsetshire, who came out with his family, consisting of his wife and four children. An allotment of one hundred and twenty acres was marked out for him. With him came also Frederic Meredith, who formerly belonged to the _Sirius_, Thomas Webb, who also belonged to the _Sirius_, with his nephew, and Edward Powell, who had formerly been here in the _Lady Juliana_ transport. Powell having since his arrival married a free woman, who came out with the farmer’s family, and Webb having brought a wife with him, had allotments of eighty acres marked out for each; the others had sixty each. The conditions under which they engaged to settle were, ‘To have their passages provided by government*; an assortment of tools and implements to be furnished them out of the public stores; to be supplied with two years’ provisions; their lands to be granted free of expense; the service of convicts also to be assigned them free of expense; and those convicts whose services might be assigned them to be supplied with two years’ rations and one year’s clothing.’ The convict who settled with them (Walter Rouse, an industrious quiet man) came out in the first fleet, and being a bricklayer by trade they thought he might be of some service to them in constructing their huts. He had an allotment of thirty acres marked out for him.
[* Government paid for each person above ten years of age the sum of eight pounds eight shillings; and allowed one shilling _per diem_ for victualling them; and sixpence _per diem_ for every one under that age.]
Many more officers availed themselves of the assent given by government to their occupying land, and fixed, some at Parramatta and others in different parts of the harbour, where they thought the ground most likely to turn out to their convenience and advantage. They began their settlements in high spirits; the necessary tools and implements of husbandry were furnished to them from the stores; and they were allowed each the use of ten convicts. From their exertions the lieutenant-governor was sanguine in his hopes of being enabled to increase considerably the cultivation of the country; they appeared indeed to enter vigorously into these views, and not being restrained from paying for labour with spirits, they got a great deal of work done at their several farms (on those days when the convicts did not work for the public) by hiring the different gangs; the great labour of burning the timber after it was cut down requiring some such extra aid.
On the 5th of the month the _Bellona_ was discharged from government employ. Twenty-one days were allowed for the delivery of her cargo; but, by taking off the people from the brick carts, and from some other works, she was cleared within the time. This ship was of four hundred and fifty-four tons burden, and was paid by government at the rate of four pounds four shillings per ton per month. A clause was inserted in the charter-party, forbidding the master to receive any person from the colony, without the express consent and order of the governor. The governor was also empowered to take her up for the purposes of the colony should he want her; but as the _Daedalus_ was expected, and the _Kitty_ was already here, both in the service of government, it was not necessary to detain her, and she sailed on the 19th for Canton.
The master having been permitted to receive on board two convicts (the number he requested) whose terms of transportation had expired, consented to his ship being smoked, when four people were found secreted on board, two of whom had not yet served the full periods of their sentences.
To prevent this ship’s coming on demurrage while her cargo was delivering, the convicts worked in their own hours, as well as those allotted to the public, under a promise of having the extra time allowed them at a future day. While this labour was in hand, the building of the barracks stood still for want of materials; it therefore became necessary, when the brick carts could again be manned, to lose no time in bringing in a sufficient number of bricks to employ the bricklayers. This having performed, they claimed their extra time, which now amounted to sixteen days. As it would have proved very inconvenient to have allowed them to remain unemployed for that number of days, the lieutenant-governor directed the commissary to issue to each person so employed half a pint of spirits _per diem_ for sixteen days. Liquor given to them in this way operated as a benefit and a comfort to them: it was the intemperate use of spirits, procured at the expense of their clothing or their provisions, which was to be guarded against, and which operated as a serious evil.
For want of sufficient store-room, it was found necessary to stow a great part of the wet provisions and flour arrived by the _Bellona_ in tiers before the provision-store. Care was taken to shelter them from the sun and from the weather; and when the pile was completed, it was, until the eye was accustomed to the sight, an object of novelty and wonder; it never having occurred to us since we first built a store, to have more provisions than our stores could contain.
Gray, who had recovered from his last punishment, being now again urged to discover what he had done with the drummer’s money, trifled until he was again punished, and then declared he had buried it in the man’s garden; but being taken to the spot he could not find it, and in fact did not seem to know where to look for it. It was supposed, that, being in liquor when he committed the robbery, he was ignorant how he had disposed of the property, or that it had fallen into the hands of some person too dishonest to give it to the right owner. He was afterwards sent to the hospital, whence he made his escape into the woods.
On the evening of Sunday the 24th the signal was made at the South Head, a short time before dark, but too late to be observed at the settlement; at nine o’clock, however, information was received by the boat belonging to the South Head, that a ship from Calcutta was at anchor in the lower part of the harbour. In the morning she worked up, and anchored just without the cove. She proved to be the _Shah Hormuzear_, of about four hundred tons burden, commanded by Mr. Matthew Wright Bampton, from Calcutta, who had embarked some property on a private speculation for this country. Mr. Bampton, in September last, had sailed from Bombay, with a cargo of provisions and stock for this settlement; but when near the Line, his ship springing a leak, he was obliged to return, and got to Bengal, where, with the sanction of Lord Cornwallis, he took on board a fresh cargo for the colony. At Bengal he had met with Captain Manning, who sailed from hence in the _Pitt_ in April last, and who mentioned to him such articles as he thought were most wanted in these settlements.
Mr. Bampton had on board when he sailed, one bull, twenty-four cows, two hundred and twenty sheep, one hundred and thirty goats, five horses, and six asses; together with a quantity of beef, flour, rice, wheat, gram, paddy, and sugar; a few pipes of wine, some flat iron, and copper sufficient for the sloop’s bottom which had been received in frame by the _Pitt_, and which Captain Manning remembered to have been sent out without that necessary article; a large quantity of spirits, and some canvas. In the article of stock, however, Mr. Bampton had been very unfortunate. His cattle died; of the sheep more than half perished; one horse and three asses died; and very few of the goats survived the voyage, a voyage by no means a long one, having been performed in eight weeks wanting three days, and in good weather. This mortality evidently did not proceed from any want of proper care, but was to be ascribed to their having been embarked immediately on being taken from the fields, and consequently wanting that stamina which a sea-voyage required.
The cattle that survived was purchased by the different officers of the colony, while the other part of the cargo, the spirits and canvas excepted, were taken by government. The amount of the whole purchased by government was L9603 5s 6d; for although a supply of provisions had been lately received from England, it was but a small one, and we were not yet in possession of that plenty which would have warranted our rejecting a cargo of provisions, particularly when brought on speculation. The hour of distress might again arrive, and occasions might occur that would excite a wish, perhaps in vain, for a cargo of provisions from Bengal. In addition to these reasons, it must be remarked, that the different articles which were purchased were of the best quality, and offered on reasonable terms.
By this ship we received information, that the _Queen_ transport had arrived safe at Bombay; but it was much feared that the _Admiral Barrington_, which sailed in company with the _Queen_ from this place on the 6th of January 1792, was lost, as no accounts had been received of her at any port in India, a considerable time after her arrival at Bombay from Batavia might reasonably have been expected. There arrived in the _Chesterfield_ a person who had been a convict in this country, but who had been allowed to take his passage on board the _Admiral Barrington_. This man quitted the _Admiral Barrington_ at Batavia, and got to the Cape in a Dutch ship, where meeting with Mr. Alt, he embarked with him, and by the accident which brought the _Chesterfield_ hither returned to this colony. On his arrival here, he circulated a report, that several of the convicts who had got on board of these two ships had been landed by order of the masters at an island which they met with in their passage to Batavia, inhabited indeed, but by savages; and that those who remained experienced such inhuman treatment, that they were glad to run away from them at the first port where any civilised people were to be found. He was himself among this number, and now declared that he was ready to make oath to the truth of his relation if it should be required. If there was any truth in his account, and the masters of these ships did actually turn any people on shore in the manner already described, it was more than probable that an act of such apparent cruelty had been occasioned by some attempt of the convicts to take the ships from them; and the numbers which were supposed to have been on board (seventeen) rather justified the supposition. Captain Manning, of the _Pitt_, who had taken from this settlement twenty men and nine women, found them so useless and troublesome, that he was very glad to leave the greatest part of them at Batavia*, and now declared that he regretted ever having received them on board. When these circumstances should be made public, it was thought that the masters of ships would not be so desirous of recruiting their ships’ companies from among the inhabitants of this colony.
[* At that grave of Europeans the _Pitt_ lost eighteen of her people.]
The grain called dholl, which had been issued as part of the ration at the rate of three pints per man per week since the arrival of the _Atlantic_, was discontinued on the 25th, the whole of that article having been served out. It had been found useful for stock.
At Toongabbie the workmen were now employed in constructing a barn and granary upon a very extensive scale.
Among the females who died this month was one, a stout healthy young woman, of the name of Martha Todd, who came out in the _Mary Ann_, and fell a victim to a dysenteric complaint, which seized her after drinking too freely of the pernicious spirits which had been lately introduced into the colony. The same fate attended James Hatfield, a man who had been looked upon as a sober good character. He was on the point of obtaining a grant of land, and came from Parramatta to Sydney for the purpose of speaking about his allotment, when, unfortunately, he met with some of his friends, and partaking intemperately of the American rum, he was seized with a dysentery, which carried him off in a few days. In this way many others were affected after drinking, through want of a sufficient stamina to overcome the effect of the spirit.
March.] The repairs of the _Chesterfield_ having been completed, she was on the point of proceeding to sea, when the lieutenant-governor proposed to the master for the sum of L120 to take on board a freight of provisions for Norfolk Island; which he consenting to, she was hauled alongside the ship from Bengal, and a certain proportion of grain was put into her; after which, such salt provisions and stores as were intended to be conveyed by her were sent from the colony, and on the 10th she sailed for Norfolk Island.
In lieu of the three pints of dholl, which were now discontinued, an additional pound of flour was served; the civil and military receiving eight pounds, and the convicts seven pounds of flour per week, from the 9th; and in order to make a little room in the store, and that the officers might be accommodated with a better kind of flour, they were permitted to receive from the commissary two casks of American flour each, which were to be deducted from their ration.
The ship from Bengal, which was manned with Lascars, had no sooner hauled into the cove, and opened a communication with the shore, than a practice commenced among the convicts of disposing of the slops and blankets which they had lately received to the Lascars, who, trembling with the cold even of this climate, very readily availed themselves of their propensity to part with them; which was so great, that it became necessary to punish with severity such offenders as were detected.
On Tuesday the 12th the signal was made at the South Head, and by the noon of the following day two Spanish ships anchored in the lower part of the harbour. An officer from one of them arriving at the settlement, we learned that they were the two ships of whose expected arrival information had been received from government in the year 1790; and to whom it was recommended that every attention should be paid. They were named the _Descuvierta_ and _Atrevida_ (the _Discovery_ and the _Intrepid_); the former commanded by Don Alexandro Malaspina, with a broad pendant as the commander of the expedition, and the latter by Don Jose de Bustamante y Guerra. They had been three years and a half from Europe on a voyage of discovery and information; and were now arrived from Manilla, after a passage of ninety-six days; touching in their way hither at Dusky Bay in New Zealand, from which they had sailed about a fortnight.
On their coming up, they anchored just abreast of the two points which form Sydney Cove, declining saluting, as it was not in our power to return it. These ships were of three hundred and five tons burden each, and were built for the particular voyage on which they were sent. Great care was observable in their construction, both as to the strength of the vessels and the accommodation of the officers and the equipage. They were well manned, and had, beside the officers customary in king’s ships, a botanist and limner on board each vessel.
They had visited all the Spanish possessions in South America and other parts of the world, ascertaining with precision their boundaries and situations; gaining much information respecting their customs and manners, their importance with regard to the mother country, their various productions commercial, agricultural, botanical, and mineral. For all which purposes the officers on board appeared to have been selected with the happiest success. They most forcibly reminded us of the unfortunate Count de la Perouse and his followers, of whom these gentlemen had only heard that they were no more; and for whose destiny they expressed a feeling arising from their having traversed the ocean in the same pursuit, and followed in the same path. Equally sincere and polite as Count de la Perouse, the Spanish commodore paid a tribute to the abilities and memory of our circumnavigator Cook, in whose steps the Chevalier Malaspina, who was an Italian marquis and a knight of Malta, declared it was a pleasure to follow, as it left him nothing to attend to, but to remark the accuracy of his observations. They lost at the island of Luconia Don Antonio Pineda, a colonel of the Spanish guards, who was charged with that department of the expedition which respected the natural history of the places they visited. They spoke of him in high terms as a man of science and a gentleman, and favoured us with an engraving of the monument which they had caused to be erected over his grave at the place where he died; and from which the following inscription was copied:
ANTONIO . PINEDA .
Tribuno . Militum .
Virtute . In . Patriam . Bello . Armisque . Insigni . Naturae . Demum . Indefesso . Scrutatori . Trienni . Arduo . Itinere . Orbis . Extrema . Adiit . Telluris . Viscera . Pelagi . Abyssos . Andiumque . Cacumina. Lustrans . Vitae . Simul . Et . Laborum . Gravium . Diem . Supremum . Obiit . In . Luconia . Phillipicarum . VI Calendas . Julii . M.D.C.C.X.C.II.
Prematuram . Optimi . Mortem .
Luget . Patria . Luget . Fauna . Lugent . Amici . Qui . Hocce . Posuere . Monumenturn .
The monument was designed by Don Fernando Brambila, the landscape-painter on board the _Atrevida_; and the inscription did credit to the classical knowledge of Senor Don Fadeo Heencke, the botanist on board the _Descuvierta_.
Having requested permission to erect an observatory, they chose the point of the cove on which a small brick hut had been built for Bennillong by Governor Phillip, making use of the hut to secure their instruments. They did not profess to be in want of much assistance; but such as they did require was directed to be furnished them without any expense; it was indeed too inconsiderable to become an object of charge.
The arrival of these strangers, together with that of the ship from Bengal, gave a pleasant diversity to the dull routine that commonly prevailed in the town of Sydney; everyone striving to make their abode among us as cheerful as possible, and to convince them, that though severed from the mother country, and residing in woods and among savages, we had not forgotten the hospitalities due to a stranger.
The commission of offences was now so frequent, that it had become necessary to assemble the criminal court during this month; and William Ashford, a lad who had been drummed out of the New South Wales corps, was tried for stealing several articles of wearing apparel from some of the convicts; of which being convicted, he was sentenced to receive three hundred lashes.
On the 21st the _Kitty_ returned from Norfolk Island, having on board Captain Paterson and his company of the new corps, together with a number of free people and convicts; amounting in all to one hundred and seventy-two persons; Governor King having been desired to get rid of any such characters as might be dangerous or troublesome to him.
Mr. King wrote very favourably of the state of the settlements, under his command. The crops of wheat and maize had produced so abundantly, as to insure him a sufficiency of that article for the next twelve months. The inhabitants were healthy; and such had been the effects of some wholesome regulations, and the attention of the magistrates to enforce them, that for the last three months not any offence deserving of punishment had been committed, nor a cob of corn purloined either of private or public property.
At the departure of the _Kitty_, he was busied in erecting some necessary buildings, as barracks, a granary, storehouses, etc. and had completed a very excellent house for his own use. Lime-stone having been found in great abundance on Norfolk Island, enabled him to build with some extent and security than had hitherto been done even in New South Wales. Several casks of this useful article were now imported in the _Kitty_, with a quantity of plank.
Captain Johnston’s company in the new corps received some addition by this ship. Eight of the marine settlers, whose grounds, on extending the lines of their allotments, were found to intersect each other, and who had declined such accommodation as Governor King thought it proper to offer them, had resigned their farms, and preferred returning to their former profession.
Toward the latter end of the month information was received of some nefarious practices which had been carrying on at the store at Parramatta; the sum of which was, that the two convicts who had been employed in issuing the provisions under the storekeeper had been for some time in the habit of serving out on each issuing-day an extra allowance of provisions to one, or occasionally to two messes. The messes consisted of six people, and one of these six (taking any mess he chose) used to be previously informed by one or other of the convicts who served the provisions, that an extra allowance for the whole mess would be served to him, which he was to receive and convey away, taking care to return the allowance to them at night, then to be divided into three shares. To accomplish this fraud, an opportunity was to be taken of the storekeeper’s absence, which might happen during the course of a long serving, and for which they took care to watch. On his return the mess for which one allowance had just been served was publicly called, and the whole served a second time. With this practice they had trusted nine or ten different people; and the wife of one man, who had assisted in the crime, in a fit of drunkenness confessed the whole.
On examination before the judge-advocate it appeared, in addition to the above circumstances, that this scheme had been carried on for about two months past; but there was little doubt of its having existed much longer.
It was no difficult matter to discover the persons who had assisted in this practice; and on their being taken up several confessed the share that they and others had had in it: upon which the lieutenant-governor ordered them all to be severely punished.
In the _Kitty_ arrived one of the superintendants who had at Norfolk Island been employed in manufacturing the flax plant; but which, for want of some necessary tools, he could not bring to much perfection. These had been written for to England, and he came hither to be employed at these settlements till they should arrive. He was now sent up to Toongabbie, to superintend the delivery of provisions at that place.
Notwithstanding the orders which had been given respecting spirits being in the possession of the convicts, on a search made in some suspected houses, fourteen or fifteen gallons were found in one night; and, being seized by the watchmen and the guard, were divided among them as a stimulus to future vigilance. The evil effect of this spirit was perceptible in the number of prisoners which were to be found every morning in the watch-house; for, when intoxicated, it could not be expected that people of this description would be very careful to avoid breaking the peace.
CHAPTER XXI
The Spanish ships sail
The _Chesterfield_ returns from Norfolk Island A contract entered into for bringing cattle from India to this country Provisions embarked on board the Bengal ship for Norfolk Island The _Daedalus_ arrives
Cattle lost
Discoveries by Captain Vancouver
Two natives of New Zealand brought in Bengal ship sails
Phenomenon in the sky
The hours of labour and ration altered Lead stolen
Detachment at Parramatta relieved
Accident at that settlement
Lands cleared by officers
Mutiny on board the _Kitty_
The _Kitty_ sails for England
His Majesty’s birthday
State of the provision store
The _Britannia_ arrives
Loss of cattle
General account of cattle purchased, lost in the passage, and landed in New South Wales
Natives
April.] The Spanish officers having nearly completed the astronomical observations which the commodore thought it necessary to make in this port, that officer signified his intention of shortly putting to sea on the further prosecution of the instructions and orders which he had received from his court. Previous to their departure, however, the lieutenant-governor, with the officers of the settlement and of the corps, were entertained first on board the _Descuvierta_, and the next day on board the _Atrevida_, the lieutenant-governor being each day received with a salute of nine guns, with the Spanish flag hoisted on the foretopmast-head, being the compliment that is paid in the Spanish service to a lieutenant-general. The dinner was prepared and served up after their own custom, and bore every appearance of having been furnished from a plentiful market.* The healths of our respective sovereigns, being united in one wish, were drank with every token of approbation, under a discharge of cannon; and ‘Prosperity to the British colonies in New South Wales’ concluded the ceremonials of each day.
[* A small cow from Monterrey was sacrificed on the occasion]
The commodore presented the lieutenant-governor with two drawings of this settlement, and one of Parramatta, done in Indian ink, by F. Brambila; together with a copy of the astronomical observations which had been made at the observatory, and at Parramatta. From these it appeared that the longitude of the observatory which they had erected at the Point, deduced from forty-two sets of distances of the sun and moon, taken on the morning of the 2nd of this month, was 151 degrees 18 minutes 8 seconds E from Greenwich; and the latitude, 33 degrees 51 minutes 28 seconds S. The latitude of the governor’s house at Parramatta was 33 degrees 48 minutes 0 seconds S; and the distance west from the observatory about nineteen miles.
The commodore left a packet with dispatches for the Spanish ambassador at the court of London, to be forwarded by the first ship which should depart hence direct for England; and on the 12th both ships sailed. Their future route was never exactly spoken of by them; but, from what the officers occasionally threw out, it appeared that they expected to be in Europe in about fourteen months from their departure. They spoke of visiting the Society and Friendly Islands, and of proceeding again to the coast of South America.
As it had been the general wish to render the residence of these strangers among us as pleasant as our situation would allow, we received with great satisfaction the expressions of regret which they testified at their departure, a regret that was at least equally felt on our part. Our society was very small; we could not therefore but sensibly feel the departure of these gentlemen, who united to much scientific knowledge those qualities of the heart which render men amiable in society; and the names of Malaspina, Bustamante, Tova, Espinosa, Concha, Cevallos, Murphy*, Robredo, Quintano, Viana, Novales, Pineda**, Bauza, Heencke***, Nee***, Ravenet****, and Brambila****, were not likely to be soon forgotten by the officers of this settlement. During their stay here, the greatest harmony subsisted between the seamen of the two ships and our people, the latter in but few instances exercising their nimble-fingered talents among them; such, however, as did choose to hazard a display, and were detected, were severely punished.
[* This gentleman was of Irish extraction.]
[** Brother of D. A. Pineda.]
[*** The botanists.]
[**** The limner, and landscape-painter.]
A few days before these ships left us, the _Chesterfield_ returned (after an absence of only thirty days) from Norfolk Island, where she landed safely every thing she had on board for that settlement. Mr. Alt anchored for some days in Cascade Bay, where Governor King had constructed a wharf, and had hopes of making the landing more convenient that could ever be practicable at Sydney Bay. This was truly a desideratum, as few ships had gone to this island without having in the course of their stay either been blown off, or been in some danger on the shore. It was understood that scarcely any thing less than a miracle could have saved the _Kitty_ from being wrecked on a rock just off the reef.
The master of the _Shah Hormuzear_ having laid before the lieutenant-governor some proposals for bringing cattle to this country, they were taken into consideration; and as the introducing cattle into the colony was a most desirable object, and Bengal had been pointed out as the settlement from which they were to be procured, after some days a contract was entered into between Mr. Bampton on his own part, and the lieutenant-governor on behalf of the crown, wherein it was covenanted, that Mr. Bampton should freight at some port in India a ship with one hundred head of large draught cattle; one hundred and fifty tons of the best provision rice, and one hundred and fifty tons of dholl, both articles to be equal in quality to samples then produced and approved of, and one hundred tons of the best Irish cured beef or pork; or, in lieu of the salt provisions, fifty tons of rice. For the cattle, it was covenanted on the part of the crown that Mr. Bampton should receive at the rate of thirty-five pounds sterling per head for all that he should land in a merchantable condition in the colony; for the rice he was to be paid twenty-six pounds sterling, and for the dholl eighteen pounds sterling, for every merchantable ton which should be landed; and, lastly, for the salt provisions he was to receive four-pence halfpenny per pound for all that should be landed in proper condition. In this contract there were several conditions and restrictions, and the master was bound in one thousand five hundred pounds penalty to fulfil them.
The lieutenant-governor, wishing to send a supply to Norfolk Island sufficient to place that settlement, as far as depended upon him, in a comfortable state in point of provisions, engaged the _Shah Hormuzear_ to carry two hundred and twenty tons of provisions thither for the sum of L220; and the quantity now sent, added to what the _Kitty_ and _Chesterfield_ had already conveyed, insured to Governor King provisions for more than twelve months for all his people at the full ration. Mr. Bampton engaging the _Chesterfield_ to carry some part of these provisions, both ships began taking them in, and by the 19th had quitted the cove, intending to sail the following morning; but the signal being made for a sail at daylight, they waited to see the event.
At the close of the evening of the 10th the _Daedalus_ storeship anchored in the cove, from the north-west coast of America. The _Daedalus_ left England with a cargo of provisions and stores, consisting chiefly of articles of traffic, for the use of the vessels under the command of Captain Vancouver, whom she joined at Nootka Sound on the north-west coast of America, and it was designed that she should, after delivering her cargo, be dispatched to this colony with such stock as she might be able to procure from the different islands whereat she might touch, and be afterwards employed as the service might require, should Captain Vancouver not make any application for her return; which was thought probable, as well as that he might require some assistance from the colony.
Captain Vancouver, after taking out as much of the cargo as could be received on board the vessels under his command, dispatched her according to his orders, although not so early as he could have wished, owing to particular circumstances; and he was now obliged to send with her a requisition for the remainder of the provisions and stores being returned to him, together with a certain quantity of provisions from the colony; the whole to be dispatched from hence so as to join him either at Nootka, or some of the Sandwich islands, in the month of October next.
The agent Lieutenant Richard Hergist, who left England in this ship, was unfortunately killed, together with a Mr. Gootch (an astronomer, on his way to join Captain Vancouver) and one seaman, at Wahool one of the Sandwich Islands, where they touched to procure refreshments. Captain Vancouver had replaced this officer, by Lieutenant James Hanson, of the _Chatham_ armed-tender, who now arrived in the ship.
On board of the _Daedalus_ were embarked at Monterrey, a Spanish settlement at a short distance from Nootka, six bulls, twelve cows, six rams, and eight ewes; and at Otaheite, Lieutenant Hanson took on board upwards of one hundred hogs (most of them, unluckily, barrows) of all which stock four sheep and about eighty hogs only survived the passage. The loss of the cattle was attributed to their having been caught wild from the woods, and put on board without ever having tasted dry food. The major part of the hogs, apparently of a fine breed, arrived in very poor condition.
Lieutenant Hanson, having touched at the northernmost island of New Zealand, brought away with him two natives of that country, having received directions to that effect for the purpose of instructing the settlers at Norfolk Island in the manufacture of the flax plant. They were both young men, and, as they arrived before the departure of the _Shah Hormuzear_, the lieutenant-governor determined to send them at once to Norfolk Island.
Captain Vancouver transmitted by Lieutenant Hanson a chart and drawings of a spacious harbour, which he discovered on the southwest coast of this country, and which he named King George the Third’s Sound. Its situation was without the line prescribed as the boundary of the British possessions in this country, being in the latitude of 35 degrees 05 minutes 30 seconds South, and longitude 118 degrees 34 minutes 0 seconds E. He also sent an account of the discovery of a dangerous cluster of rocks, which he named the Snares, the largest of which was about a league in circuit, and lay in latitude 48 degrees 03 minutes S and longitude 166 degrees 20 minutes East, bearing from the South-end of New Zealand S 40 degrees W true, twenty leagues distant; and from the southernmost part of the Traps (rocks discovered by Captain Cook) S 671/2 degrees W true, twenty leagues distant. The largest of these rocks, which was the highest and the northeasternmost, might be seen in clear weather about eight or nine leagues: the whole cluster was composed of seven barren rocks, extending in a direction about N 70 degrees E and S 70 degrees W true, occupying the space of about three leagues.
The _Chatham_, being separated in a gale of wind from the _Discovery_, fell in with an island, which was named ‘Chatham Island,’ and along the north-side of which she sailed for twelve leagues. Its inhabitants much resembled the natives of New Zealand, and it was situated in latitude 43 degrees 48 minutes S and longitude 183 degrees 02 minutes East.
We learned from Lieutenant Hanson, that the _Matilda_ whaler, which sailed hence in the latter end of the year 1791, on her fishing voyage, was wrecked on a reef in 22 degrees South latitude, and 138 degrees 30 minutes West longitude. The master and people reached Otaheite, from whence some were taken by an American vessel, and some by Captain Bligh of the Providence. Five sailors only remained on the island, with one runaway convict from this place, when the _Daedalus_ touched there in her route hither, and of that number one sailor only could be prevailed on to quit it.
We had now the satisfaction of learning that Captain Bligh had sailed for Jamaica in July last, with ten thousand breadfruit plants on board in fine order; having so far accomplished the object of this his second mission to that island.
The natives from New Zealand having been put on board the _Shah Hormuzear_ at the last moment of her stay in port, Lieutenant Hanson remaining with them until the ship was without the Heads, she sailed, together with the _Chesterfield_, on the 24th.
Mr. Bampton purposed making his passage to India through the straits at the south end of New Guinea, known by the name of Torres Straits. Captain Hill, of the New South Wales corps, took his passage to England by the way of India with Mr. Bampton.
But few convicts were allowed to quit the colony in these ships; four men and one woman only, whose terms of transportation were expired, being received on board.
Gray, who had absconded from the hospital in February last, made his appearance about the latter end of this month at Toongabbie, where he was detected in stealing Indian corn.
Richard Sutton was stabbed with a knife in the belly by one Abraham Gordon, at the house of a female convict, on some quarrel respecting the woman, and at a time when both were inflamed with liquor. In the struggle Sutton was also dangerously cut in the arm; and when the surgeon came to dress him, he found six inches of the omentum protruding at the wound in his belly. Gordon was taken into custody.
Some people were taken up at Parramatta on suspicion of having murdered one of the watchmen belonging to that settlement; the circumstances of which affair one of them had been overheard relating to a fellow convict, while both were under confinement for some other offence. A watchman certainly had been missing for some time past; but after much inquiry and investigation nothing appeared that could furnish matter for a criminal prosecution against them.
A soldier, who had been sentenced by a court-martial to receive three hundred lashes, on being led out to receive his punishment, attempted to cut his throat, wounding himself under the ear with a knife. The punishment was put off until the evening, when he declared that he was the person who killed the watchman at Parramatta, which he effected by shooting him; and that he would lead any one to the place where the body lay. This, however, not preventing his receiving as much of his punishment as he could bear, he afterwards declared that he knew nothing of the murder, and had accused himself of perpetrating so horrid a crime solely in the hope of deferring his punishment.
The natives, who now and then showed themselves about the distant settlements, toward the latter end of the month wounded a convict who was taking provisions from Parramatta to a settler at Prospect Hill. The wound was not dangerous; but it occasioned the loss of the provisions with which he was entrusted.
The rains of this month came too late to save the Indian corn of the season, which now wore a most unpromising appearance. A grain had been lately introduced into the settlement, and grown at Toongabbie, and other places, which promised to answer very well for stock. It was the caffre corn of Africa, and had every appearance of proving a useful grain.
An extraordinary appearance in the sky was observed by several people between five and six o’clock in the evening of Friday the 12th of this month. It was noticed in the north-west, and appeared as if a ray of forked lightning had been stationary in that quarter of the sky for about fifteen minutes, which was the time it was visible. It was not to be discerned, however, after the sun had quitted the horizon.
May.] The days being considerably shortened, and the weather having lately been bad, it became necessary to alter the hours of labour. On the first of May, therefore, the lieutenant-governor directed that the convicts employed in cultivation, those employed under the master bricklayer, and those who worked at the brick carts and timber carriages, should labour from seven in the morning until ten, rest from that time until three in the afternoon, and continue at their work till sunset. The carpenters, whose business mostly lay within doors, and who were therefore not exposed to the weather, were directed to work one hour more in the afternoon, beginning at one instead of two o’clock.
On the 4th the weekly ration was altered, the male convicts receiving (instead of seven) four pounds of flour, to which were added four pounds of wheat and four pounds of maize; the allowance of salt provisions continued the same; but, the oil being expended, six ounces of sugar were issued in lieu of that article. The wheat was that received from Bengal, and the maize was issued the first week shelled, but unground; on the second the people received it in the cob, getting six pounds in that state in lieu of four shelled. This was unquestionably a good ration, and when a sufficient number of mills were put up to grind the maize and the wheat, the people themselves allowed it to be so.
With a ration that they admitted to be a good one, with about six hours labour during five days of the week, and with the advantages of gardens and good huts, the situation of the convicts might at this period be deemed comfortable, and such as precluded all excuse for misconduct. Garden robberies were, notwithstanding, often committed at Sydney; and at the other settlements the maize which was still in the field suffered considerable depredation.
A distinction was made in the ration served to the civil and military, they receiving weekly six instead of eight pounds of flour, two pounds of wheat, and four pounds of maize _per_ man.
About the middle of the month the weather was remarkably bad. In the forenoon of the 15th a report was spread, in the midst of a most violent squall of wind and rain, that a ship was coming in. The wind having blown from the southward for some days before favoured the story, and, every one who heard it believing it to be true, the town was soon in motion notwithstanding the storm; for, although it was not so rare as it had been to hear of a ship, yet there was always something cheering and grateful, and perhaps ever will be, in entertaining the idea that our society was perhaps about to be increased, and that we were on the point of receiving intelligence from our connections, or information of what was doing in that world from which we felt ourselves almost severed. On this occasion, however, we were disappointed; for, on the return of a boat which had been sent to the South Head, we were informed that the signal had not been made, nor a ship seen to occasion it. But we had been well trained in New South Wales to meet and endure disappointment!
On the night of this day, during the very heavy rain which fell, some person or persons found means to take off, undiscovered by the sentinel at the store on the east side, five hundred weight of sheet lead, which had been landed from the _Daedalus_, and rolled to the storehouse door, where, being an article not likely from its weight to become an easy object of depredation, it was supposed to be perfectly safe. A very diligent search was made, but without success; and it remained undiscovered until the 27th, when a seaman belonging to the _Kitty_ transport, on the ebbing of a spring tide, perceived it lying on the shore at low-water mark, opposite to the spot where the _Daedalus_ lay at anchor. From this circumstance suspicion fell upon the people belonging to that ship; but as any design they could have in stealing it was not very obvious it was more probable that some of the convicts had dropped it there for the purpose of secreting it till a future day, when it would have been got up, and cast into shot for those who are allowed to kill game.
About the end of the month the detachment of the New South Wales corps on duty at Parramatta was relieved. The party that remained there was placed under the command of Lieutenant Macarthur, the officer charged with the direction of the civil duties of that settlement. The relief took place by land, the party from Sydney marching up in about seven hours, and that from Parramatta arriving at their quarters in Sydney in something more than six. The computed distance by land is between seventeen and eighteen miles.
On the 29th our colours were displayed at the fort, in grateful remembrance of the restoration of monarchy in England.
Information was the same day received from Parramatta, that on the evening of Saturday the 24th a settler of the name of Lisk, having been drinking at the house of Charles Williams with Rose Burk (a woman with whom he cohabited) until they were very much intoxicated, as he was returning to his farm through the town of Parramatta, a dispute arose between him and the woman, during which a gun that he had went off, and the contents lodged in the woman’s arm below the elbow, shattering the bones in so dreadful a manner as to require immediate amputation; which Mr. Arndell, being fortunately at home, directly performed. The unhappy