An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales Volume I Part 11

This account met with more credit than could usually be allowed to such tales, as the person who gave it was held in great estimation by the officers of his s.h.i.+p both as a man and as a seaman.

Mr. Palmer, the purser of the _Sirius_, having occasion to cut timber in a cove down the harbour, was visited by some natives, who took an opportunity of concealing two of his axes in the bushes. On his missing the implements, the natives went off in some consternation, leaving two children behind them, whom Mr. Palmer detained, and would have brought up to the settlement, had not their friends ransomed them with the property that had been stolen.

At Rose Hill, where the corn promised well, an Emu had been killed, which stood seven feet high, was a female, and when opened was found to contain exactly fifty eggs.

October.] The launch that was begun in May last by the carpenter of the _Supply_, being completed, was put into the water the 5th of October.

From the quant.i.ty of wood used in her construction she appeared to be a mere bed of timber, and, when launched, was named by the convicts, with an happiness that is sometimes visible in the allusions of the lower order of people, The Rose Hill Packet*. She was very soon employed in transporting provisions to Rose Hill, and going up with the tide of flood, at the top of high water, pa.s.sed very well over the flats at the upper part of the harbour.

[* She was afterwards generally known by the name of The Lump, a word more strictly applying to her size and construction.]

Our enemies the rats, who worked unseen, and attacked us where we were most vulnerable, being again observed in numbers about the provision store, the commissary caused the provisions to be moved out of one store into another; for, alas! at this period they could be all contained in one. These pernicious vermin were found to be very numerous, and the damage they had done much greater than the state of our stores would admit. Eight casks of flour were at one time found wholly destroyed. From the store, such as escaped the hunger of the different dogs that were turned loose upon them flew to the gardens of individuals, where they rioted upon the Indian corn which was growing, and did considerable mischief

The presence of a captain being no longer deemed necessary at Rose Hill, the military guard there for the protection of the stores was reduced to a subaltern officer, and a proportionate number of privates. Mr. Dodd, who had for some time been authorized by the governor to inflict corporal punishment on the convicts for idleness, rioting, or other misdemeanors, had obtained such an influence over them, that military coercion was not so necessary as when the settlement was first established. Of this person, the officers who had been on duty at Rose Hill from time to time gave the most favourable reports, speaking of him as one in every respect qualified to execute the trust which had been reposed in him by the governor.

During this month a gang of convicts were employed at Sydney in forming a convenient road from the hospital to the magazine and observatory on the point; and a small hut, for the reception of a corporal's guard at the hospital, was erected.

Of the few people who died in October, (one soldier, three women, and one child), one was an unhappy woman who had been sent on board in a state of insanity, and who had remained in that condition until the day of her death; she and another of the three women died in child-bed; and the soldier was carried off by a disorder which he brought with him into the country. These circ.u.mstances tended to establish the good opinion which was at first formed of the salubrity of the climate of New South Wales.

November.] This month opened with a serious, but prudent and necessary alteration in our provisions. The ration which had hitherto been issued was, on the first of the month, reduced to two thirds of every species, spirits excepted, which continued as usual. This measure was calculated to guard against accidents; and the necessity of it was obvious to every one, from the great uncertainty as to the time when a supply might arrive from England, and from the losses which had been and still were occasioned by rats in the provision store. Two years provisions were landed with us in the colony: we had been within two months of that time disembarked, and the public store had been aided only by a small surplus of the provisions which remained of what had been furnished by the contractor for the pa.s.sage, and the supply of four months flour which had been received by the _Sirius_ from the Cape of Good Hope. All this did not produce such an abundance as would justify any longer continuance of the full ration; and although it was reasonable to suppose, as we had not hitherto received any supplies, that s.h.i.+ps would arrive before our present stock was exhausted; yet, if the period of distress should ever arrive, the consciousness that we had early foreseen and strove to guard against its arrival would certainly soften the bitterness of our reflections; and, guarding thus against the worst, that worst providentially might never happen. The governor, whose humanity was at all times conspicuous, directed that no alteration should he made in the ration to be issued to the women. They were already upon two thirds of the man's allowance; and many of them either had children who could very well have eaten their own and part of the mother's ration, or they had children at the breast; and although they did not labour, yet their appet.i.tes were never so delicate as to have found the full ration too much, had it been issued to them. The like reduction was enforced afloat as well as on sh.o.r.e, the s.h.i.+ps' companies of the _Sirius_ and _Supply_ being put to two thirds of the allowance usually issued to the king's s.h.i.+ps. This, as a deduction of the eighths allowed by custom to the purser was made from their ration, was somewhat less than what was to be issued in the settlement.

Thus opened the month of November in this settlement; where, though we had not the accompanying gloom and vapour of our own climate to render it terrific to our minds, yet we had that before us, in the midst of all our suns.h.i.+ne, which gave it the complexion of the true November so inimical to our countrymen.

It was soon observed, that of the provisions issued at this ration on the Sat.u.r.day the major part of the convicts had none left on the Tuesday night; it was therefore ordered, that the provisions should be served in future on the Sat.u.r.days and Wednesdays. By these means, the days which would otherwise pa.s.s in hunger, or in thieving from the few who were more provident, would be divided, and the people themselves be more able to perform the labour which was required from them. Overseers and married men were not included in this order.

On the 7th Captain Hunter brought the _Sirius_ into the cove completely repaired. She had been strengthened with riders placed within board, her copper had been carefully examined, and she was now in every respect fit for sea. Previous to her quitting the careening cove, Mr. Hill, one of the master's mates, having had some business at Sydney, was landed on his return early in the morning on the north sh.o.r.e, opposite Sydney Cove, from whence the walk to the s.h.i.+p was short; but he was never afterwards heard of. Parties were sent day after day in quest of him for several days. Guns were fired from the _Sirius_ every four hours, night and day, but all to no effect. He had met with some fatal accident, which deprived a wife of the pleasurable prospect of ever seeing him return to her and to his friends. He had once before missed his way; and it was reported, when his loss was confirmed, that he declared on the fatal morning, when stepping out of the boat, that he expected to lose himself again for a day or two. His conjecture was more than confirmed; he lost himself for ever, and thus added one to the number of those unfortunate persons who had perished in the woods of this country.

On the 11th the _Supply_ sailed for Norfolk Island, having on board provisions and six male and eight female convicts for that colony. She was to stop at Lord Howe Island, to endeavour to procure turtle for this settlement; a supply of which, in its present situation, would have been welcomed, not as a luxury, but as a necessary of life.

The night-watch was found of infinite utility. The commission of crimes, since their inst.i.tution, had been evidently less frequent, and they were instrumental in bringing forward for punishment several offenders who would otherwise have escaped. The fear and detestation in which they were held by their fellow-prisoners was one proof of their a.s.siduity in searching for offences and in bringing them to light; and it possibly might have been a.s.serted with truth, that many streets in the metropolis of London were not so well guarded and watched as the small, but rising town of Sydney, in New South Wales.

By their activity, a woman (a female convict of the name of Ann Davis alias Judith Jones), was apprehended for breaking into the house of Robert Sidaway (a convict) in the daytime, and stealing several articles of wearing apparel thereout. The criminal court being a.s.sembled, she was tried and found guilty. On receiving sentence to die, she pleaded being quick with child; but twelve of the discreetest women among the convicts, all of whom had been mothers of children, being impanelled as a jury of matrons, they p.r.o.nounced that she was not pregnant; on which she was executed the Monday following, acknowledging at that fatal moment which generally gives birth and utterance to truth, that she was about to suffer justly, and that an attempt which she made, when put on her defence, to criminate another person (a woman whose character was so notorious that she hoped to establish her own credit and innocence upon her infamy), as well as her plea of pregnancy, were advanced merely for the purpose of saving her life. She died generally reviled and unpitied by the people of her own description.

The summer was observed to be the chief season of fish. A fis.h.i.+ng-boat belonging to the colony had so many fish in the seine, that had it not burst at the moment of landing, it was imagined that a sufficiency would have been taken to have served the settlement for a day; as it was, a very considerable quant.i.ty was brought in; and not long after a boat belonging to the _Sirius_ caught forty-seven of the large fish which obtained among us the appellation of Light Horse Men, from the peculiar conformation of the bone of the head, which gave the fish the appearance of having on a light-horse man's helmet.

The governor, after the death of the native who was carried off by the smallpox in May last, never had lost sight of a determination to procure another the first favourable opportunity. A boat had several times gone down the harbour for that purpose; but without succeeding, until the 25th of this month, when the first lieutenant of the _Sirius_, accompanied by the master, fortunately secured two natives, both men, and brought them up to the settlement without any accident. Being well known to the children, through their means every a.s.surance was given them of their perfect safety in our possession. They were taken up to the governor's, the place intended for their future residence, where such restraint was laid upon their persons as was judged requisite for their security.

The a.s.surances of safety which were given them, and the steps which were taken to keep them in a state of security, were not perfectly satisfactory to the elder of the two; and he secretly determined to take the first opportunity which offered of giving his attendants no further trouble upon his account. The negligence of his keeper very soon gave him the opportunity he desired; and he made his escape, taking with him into the woods the fetter which had been rivetted to his ankle, and which every one, who knew the circ.u.mstance, imagined he would never be able to remove. His companion would have joined him in his flight, but fear detained him a few minutes too late, and he was seized while tremblingly alive to the joyful prospect of escaping.

During the month of November a brick house was begun on the east side of the cove for the judge-advocate. The huts which were got up on our first landing were slight and temporary; every shower of rain washed a portion of the clay from between the interstices of the cabbage-tree of which they were constructed; their covering was never tight; their size was necessarily small and inconvenient; and although we had not hitherto been so fortunate as to discover limestone any where near the settlement, yet to occupy a brick house put together with mortar formed of the clay of the country, and covered with tiles, became in point of comparative comfort and convenience an object of some importance.

December.] Among the various business which came before the magistrates at their weekly meetings, was one which occupied much of their time and attention. The convicts who were employed about the provision store informed the commissary, by letter, that from certain circ.u.mstances, they had reason to accuse Mr. Zachariah Clark, his a.s.sistant, of embezzling the public provisions. A complaint of such a nature, as well on account of its importance to the settlement, as of its consequence to the person accused, called for an immediate enquiry; and the judge-advocate and Captain Hunter lost no time in bringing forward the necessary investigation. The convicts charged Mr. Clark with having made at different times, and applied to his own use, a considerable over-draught of every species of provisions, and of the liquor which was in store. A dread of these circ.u.mstances being one day discovered by others, when the blame of concealment might involve them in a suspicion of partic.i.p.ation, induced them to step forward with the charge. The suspicious appearances, however, were accounted for by Mr. Clark much to the satisfaction of the magistrates under whose consideration they came. He stated, that expecting to be employed in this country, he had brought out with him large quant.i.ties of provisions, wine, rum, draught and bottled porter, all of which he generally kept at the store; that when parties have applied to him for provisions or spirits at an hour when the store was shut, he had frequently supplied them from his own case, or stock which he had for present use in his tent or in his house, and afterwards repaid himself from the store; and that being ill with the scurvy for several months after his arrival, he did not use any salt provisions, which gave him a considerable credit for such articles at the store: from all which circ.u.mstances the convicts who accused him might, as they were unknown to them, be induced to imagine that he was taking up more than his ration from time to time.

With Mr. Clark's ample and public acquittal from this accusation, a commendation equally public was given to the convicts, who, noticing the apparent over-draught of spirits and provisions, and ignorant at the same time of the causes which occasioned it, had taken measures to have it explained.

From the peculiarity of our situation, there was a sort of sacredness about our store; and its preservation pure and undefiled was deemed as necessary as the chast.i.ty of Caesar's wife. With us, it would not bear even suspicion.

In the course of this month the harvest was got in; the ground in cultivation at Rose Hill produced upwards of two hundred bushels of wheat, about thirty-five bushels of barley, and a small quant.i.ty of oats and Indian corn; all of which was intended to be reserved for feed. At Sydney, the spot of ground called the Governor's Farm had been sown only with barley, and produced about twenty-five bushels.

A knowledge of the interior parts of this extensive country was anxiously desired by every one; but the difficulty of attaining it, and the various employments in which we had all been necessarily engaged, had hitherto prevented any material researches being made. The governor had penetrated to the westward as far as Richmond Hill, perhaps between fifty and sixty miles inland; but beyond that distance all was a blank. Early in this month Lieutenant Dawes with a small party, taking with them just as much provisions as they could conveniently carry, set off on an attempt to reach the western mountains by and from the banks of the fresh water river, first seen, some time since, by Captain Tench, and supposed to be a branch of the Hawkesbury. From this excursion he returned on the ninth day, without accomplis.h.i.+ng his design, meeting with nothing, after quitting the river, but ravines that were nearly inaccessible. He had, notwithstanding the danger and difficulty of getting on through such a country, reached within eleven miles of the mountains, by computation.

During his toilsome march he met with nothing very remarkable, except the impressions of the cloven feet of an animal differing from other cloven feet by the great width of the division in each. He was not fortunate enough to see the animal that had made them.

In this journey Lieutenant Dawes's line of march, unfortunately and unpleasantly for him, happened to lie, nearly from his setting out, across a line of high and steep rocky precipices, which required much caution in descending, as well as labour in ascending. Perhaps an open country, which might have led him readily and conveniently to the point he proposed to attain, was lying at no great distance from him either to his right or left. To seek for that, however, might have required more time than his stock of provisions would have admitted; and he was compelled to return through the same unprofitable country which he had pa.s.sed.

On the 21st, between ten and eleven o'clock at night, the _Supply_ returned from Norfolk Island, having been absent six weeks within a day.

From thence Lieutenant King wrote that he expected his harvest would produce from four to six months flour for all his inhabitants, exclusive of a reserve of double feed for twenty acres of ground. Beside this promising appearance, he had ten acres in cultivation with Indian corn, which looked very well. His gardens had suffered much by the grub worm and from a want of rain, of which they had had scarcely any since the 23rd of September last. The ground which was cleared for the crown amounted to about twenty-eight acres, and he was busied in preparations for building a redoubt on an eminence named by him Mount George.

The _Supply_, in her visit at Lord Howe Island, turned eighteen turtle; several of which unluckily dying before she reached Norfolk Island, she could leave only four there, and but three survived the short voyage thence to this place.

Several thefts having been lately committed by the convicts, and the offenders discovered by the vigilance of the members of our new police, several of them were tried before the criminal court of juidicature.

Caesar the black, whose situation on Garden Island had been some time back rendered more eligible, by being permitted to work without irons, found means to make his escape, with a mind insensible alike to kindness and to punishment, taking with him a canoe which lay there for the convenience of the other people employed on the island, together with a week's provisions belonging to them; and in a visit which he made them a few nights after in his canoe, he took off an iron pot, a musket, and some ammunition.

The working convicts at Sydney had lately been princ.i.p.ally employed in constructing two convenient kitchens and ovens for the use of the detachment, adjoining to the quarters; building a house for the judge-advocate; forming roads either in or leading to the town; and removing the provisions from the old thatched storehouse to that in the marine quarters, which, by being covered in with tiles, was not so liable to an accident by fire, nor likely to prove so great an harbour for rats, to guard against whom it had become necessary to take as many precautions as against any other enemy. They, however, in defiance of every care which was taken to shut them out, when the provisions were removed, found means, by working under ground, to get in; and as it was now a matter of much moment to preserve every ounce of provisions that belonged to us, they were all taken out, and restowed with an attention suitable to their important value.

At Rose Hill, where as yet there was not any night-watch established, petty thefts and depredations were frequently committed, particularly on the wheat as it ripened. The bakehouse also was robbed of a quant.i.ty of flour by a person unknown. These offences were generally attributed to the reduction which had taken place in the ration of provisions; and every one dreaded how much the commission of them might be increased, if accident or delay should render a still greater reduction necessary.

Mr. Dodd, the superintendant at that settlement, a few days before Christmas, cut and sent down a cabbage which weighed twenty-six pounds.

The other vegetables productions of his garden, which was by no means a rich mould, were plentiful and luxuriant.

Some people who had been out with a gun from Rose Hill brought in with them, on their return, a tinder-box, to which chance conducted them in a thick brush distinguished by the name of the New Brush, about six miles from the settlement. This article was known to have belonged to the two unfortunate soldiers who had been unaccounted for since last April, and who, in great probability, found there a miserable period to their existence. They also picked up in the same brush a piece of linen, said to have formed part of a petticoat which belonged to Anne Smith, a female convict who absconded a few days after our landing in the country. This might have been carried thither and dropped by some natives in their way through the brush; but it gave a strong colour to the supposition of her having likewise perished, by some means or other, in the woods.

CHAPTER IX

A convict made a free settler A pleasing delusion Extraordinary supply of fish Caesar's narrative Another convict wounded by the natives The _Supply_ arrives from Norfolk Island A large number of settlers sent thither on board the _Sirius_ and _Supply_ Heavy rains Scarcity of provisions increasing in an alarming degree Lieutenant Maxwell's insanity News brought of the loss of the _Sirius_ Allowance of provisions still further reduced The _Supply_ sent to Batavia for relief Robberies frequent and daring An old man dies of hunger Rose Hill Salt and fis.h.i.+ng-lines made The native escapes Transactions

1790.]

January.] Early in the new year the _Supply_ sailed again for Norfolk Island with twenty-two male and two female convicts, and one child; Lieutenant King having in his last letters intimated, that he could very well find employment for a greater number of people than he then had under his orders. With those convicts and some stores she sailed on the 7th, and on her return was to touch at Lord Howe island to procure turtle.

Of the convicts the period of whose sentences of transportation had expired, and of whom mention was made in the transactions of July last, one, who signified a wish of becoming a settler, had been sent up to Rose Hill by the governor; where his excellency, having only waited to learn with certainty that he had become a free man before he gave him a grant of land, caused two acres of ground to be cleared of the timber which stood on them, and a small hut to be built for him. This man had been bred to the business of a farmer, and during his residence in this country had shown a strong inclination to be industrious, and to return to honest habits and pursuits. Rewarding him, therefore, was but holding out encouragement to such good dispositions. The governor had, however, another object in view, beside a wish to hold him up as a deserving character: he was desirous of trying, by his means, in what time an industrious active man, with certain a.s.sistance, would be enabled to support himself in this country as a settler; and for that purpose, in addition to what he caused to be done for him at first, he furnished him with the tools and implements of husbandry necessary for cultivating his ground, with a proportion of grain to sow it, and a small quant.i.ty of live stock to begin with. He took possession of his ground the 21st of November 1789, and under some disadvantages. An opinion had prevailed, and had been pretty generally disseminated, that a man could not live in this country; and in addition to this discouragement, although he still received a ration from the public store, yet it was not a ration that bore any proportion to the labour which his situation required from him.

The man himself, however, resolved to be industrious, and to surmount as well as he was able whatever difficulties might lie in his way.

The flour which had been brought from England did not serve much beyond the beginning of this month, and that imported from the Cape now supplied its place. Every one began to look forward with much anxiety to the arrival of supplies from England; and as it was reasonable to conclude that every day might bring them on the coast, Captain Hunter, accompanied by Mr. Worgan, the surgeon of the _Sirius_, and Mr. White, with six or eight seamen, having chosen a spot proper for their purpose, erected a flagstaff on the South Head of this harbour, whence, on the appearance of a s.h.i.+p in the offing, a signal might be made, as well to convey the wished-for information to the settlement, as to serve as a mark for the stranger. An hut was built for their accommodation, and this little establishment was of such importance, that our walks were daily directed to a spot whence it could be seen; thus fondly indulging the delusion, that the very circ.u.mstance of looking out for a sail would bring one into view.

A sufficient quant.i.ty of fish having been taken one night in this month, to admit the serving of two pounds to each man, woman, and child belonging to the detachment, the governor directed, that a boat should in future be employed three times in the week to fish for the public; and that the whole quant.i.ty caught should be issued at the above rate to every person in turn. This allowance was in addition to the ration of provisions; and was received with much satisfaction several times during the month.

Caesar, after his escape from and subsequent visit at Garden Island, found his way up to Rose Hill, whence he was brought on the 30th, very much wounded by some natives whom he had met with in the woods. Being fearful of severe punishment for some of his late offences, he reported, on being brought in, that he had fallen in with our cattle which had been so long lost; that they were increased by two calves; that they seemed to be under the care of eight or ten natives, who attended them closely while they grazed; and that, on his attempting to drive the cattle before him, he was wounded by another party of the natives. The circ.u.mstance of his being wounded was the only part of his story that met with any credit, and that could not well be contradicted, as he had several spear wounds about him in different parts of his body; but every thing else was looked upon as a fabrication (and that not well contrived) to avert the lash which he knew hung over him. He was well known to have as small a share of veracity as of honesty. His wounds however requiring care and rest, he was secured, and placed under the surgeon's care at the hospital.

Information was also received at this time from Rose Hill, that a convict who had been employed to strike the sting ray, with another, on the flats, having gone on sh.o.r.e, engaged in some quarrel with the natives, who took all his clothes from him, severely wounded, and would inevitably have killed him, but for the humane, friendly, and disinterested interference of one of their own women, who happened to be present. This accident, and many others of the same nature, could not have happened, had the orders which he had received, not to land upon any account, been attended to.

The bricklayers, having finished the judge-advocate's house, were employed in building a dispensary on the west side contiguous to the hospital, the medicines and chirurgical instruments being much exposed to damps in the place where they had hitherto been necessarily kept.

Garden robberies were frequent, notwithstanding the utmost care and vigilance were exerted to prevent them. A rainy tempestuous night always afforded a cloak for the thief, and was generally followed in the morning by some one complaining of his or her garden having been stripped of all its produce.