An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales Volume I Part 20

At Calcutta, Lieutenant Bowen, who was continued in his employment of naval agent, was to procure a cargo of flour and peas, in the proportion of two tons of flour to one ton of peas; and was for that purpose furnished with letters to the merchants who had made proposals to Lord Cornwallis to supply the colony, the governor meaning for that reason to give their house the preference.

The _Salamander_ had returned from Norfolk Island, where every person and article she had on board were safely landed. By letters received thence, we learned that it was supposed there had formerly been inhabitants upon the island, several stone hatchets, or rather stones in the shapes of adzes, and others in the shapes of chisels, having been found in turning up some ground in the interior parts of the island. Lieutenant-Governor King had formerly entertained the same supposition from discovering the banana tree growing in regular rows.

It was not to be doubted but that the tranquillity and regularity of our little town would in some degree be interrupted by the great influx of disorderly seamen who were at times let loose from the transports. Much less cause of complaint on this score, however, arose than was expected.

The port orders, which were calculated to preserve the peace of the place, were from time to time enforced; and on one occasion ten seamen belonging to the transports were punished for being found in the settlement after nine o'clock at night.

At Parramatta, whither the greatest part of the convicts lately arrived had been sent, petty offences were frequently committed, and the constant presence of a magistrate became daily more requisite. The convicts at that place were chiefly employed in opening some new ground at a short distance from the settlement.

The foundation of a new storehouse was begun this month at Sydney, on the spot where the redoubt had hitherto stood; which, since the construction of the platform near the magazine on the east point of the cove, had been pulled down, and the mould removed into the garden appropriated to government-house. This, and clearing the transports, formed the princ.i.p.al labour at Sydney.

On the last day of this month, James Downey was found hanging in his hut.

The cause of this rash action was said to have been the dread of being taken up for a theft which, according to some intimation he had received, was about to be alleged against him. He came out in the first fleet, had served his term of transportation, had constantly worked as a labourer in the bricklayers gang, and was in general considered as a harmless fellow.

From Parramatta two convicts were missing, and were said to be killed by the natives.

CHAPTER XV

A party of Irish convicts abscond The _Queen_ sails for Norfolk Island Whale fishery Ration altered The _Supply_ sails for England Live stock (public) in the colony Ground in cultivation Sick Run of water decreasing Two transports sail Whale fishery given up The _Queen_ arrives from Norfolk Island The Marines embark in the _Gorgon_ for England Ration further reduced Transactions Convicts who were in the _Guardian_ emanc.i.p.ated Store finished Deaths in 1791

November.] On the first day of this month, information was received from Parramatta, that a body of twenty male convicts and one female, of those lately arrived in the _Queen_ transport from Ireland, each taking a week's provisions, and armed with tomahawks and knives, had absconded from that settlement, with the chimerical idea of walking to China, or of finding in this country a settlement wherein they would be received and entertained without labour. It was generally supposed, however, that this improbable tale was only a cover to the real design, which might be to procure boats, and get on board the transports after they had left the cove. An officer with a party was immediately sent out from Parramatta in pursuit of them, who traced them as far down the harbour as Lane Cove, whence he reached the settlement at Sydney, without seeing or hearing any thing more of them. A few days afterward the people in a boat belonging to the _Albemarle_ transport, which had been down the harbour to procure wood on the north sh.o.r.e, met with the wretched female who had accompanied the men. She had been separated from them for three days, and wandered by herself, entirely ignorant of her situation, until she came to the water side, where, fortunately, she soon after met the boat. Boats were sent down the next day, and the woman's husband was found and brought up to the settlement. They both gave the same absurd account of their design as before related, and appeared to have suffered very considerably by fatigue, hunger, and the heat of the weather. The man had lost his companions forty eight hours before he was himself discovered; and no tidings of them were received for several days, although boats were constantly sent in to the north west arm, and the lower part of the harbour.

Three of these miserable people were some time after met by some officers who were on an excursion to the lagoon between this harbour and Broken Bay; but, notwithstanding their situation, they did not readily give themselves up, and, when questioned, said they wanted nothing more than to live free from labour. These people were sent up to Parramatta, whence, regardless of what they had experienced, and might again suffer, they a second time absconded in a few days after they had been returned.

Parties were immediately dispatched from that settlement, and thirteen of those who first absconded were brought in, in a state of deplorable wretchedness, naked, and nearly worn out with hunger. Some of them had subsisted chiefly by sucking the flowering shrubs and wild berries of the woods; and the whole exhibited a picture of misery, that seemed sufficient to deter others from the like extravagant folly. The practice of flying from labour into the woods still, however, prevailing, the governor caused all the convicts who arrived this year to be a.s.sembled, and informed them of his determination to put a stop to their absconding from the place where he had appointed them to labour, by sending out parties with orders to fire upon them whenever they should be met with; and he declared that if any were brought in alive, he would either land them on a part of the harbour whence they could not depart, or chain them together with only bread and water for their subsistence, during the remainder of their terms of transportation. He likewise told them, that he had heard they were intending to arm themselves and seize upon the stores (such a design had for some days been reported); but that if they made any attempt of that kind, every man who might be taken should be instantly put to death. Having thus endeavoured to impress them with ideas of certain punishment if they offended in future, he forgave some offences which had been reported by the magistrate, exhorted them to go cheerfully to their labour, and changed their hours of work, agreeably to a request which they had made.

Four hundred and two of these miserable people had received medicines from the hospital in the morning of the day when the governor had thus addressed them. The prevailing disease was a dysentery, which was accompanied by a general debility.

The _Queen_ sailed early in the month with an officer and a detachment of the New South Wales corps, some convicts, stores and provisions, for Norfolk Island. The _Salamander _sailed at the same time on her fis.h.i.+ng voyage.

From her intended trial of the whale-fishery on the coast the _Britannia_ arrived on the 10th, and was followed the next day by the _Mary Ann_.

Mr. Melvill killed, in company with the _William and Ann_, the day after he went out, seven spermaceti whales, two only of which they were able to secure from the bad weather which immediately succeeded. From the whale which fell to the _Britannia's_ share, although but a small one, thirteen barrels of oil were procured; and in the opinion of Mr. Melvill, the oil, from its containing a greater proportion of that valuable part of the fish called by the whalers the head-matter, was worth ten pounds more per ton than that of the fish of any other part of the world he had been in.

He thought that a most advantageous voyage might be made upon this coast, as he was confident upwards of fifteen thousand whales were seen in the first ten days that he was absent, the greater number of which were observed off this harbour; and he was prevented from filling his s.h.i.+p by bad weather alone, having met with only one day since he sailed in which he could lower down a boat.

The success and report of the master of the _Mary Ann_ were very different; he had been as far to the southward as the lat.i.tude of 45 degrees without seeing a whale; and in a gale of wind s.h.i.+pped a sea that stove two of his boats, and washed down the vessels for boiling the oil, which were fixed in brick-work, and to repair which he came into this harbour.

The _Matilda_ came in a few days afterwards from Jervis Bay, in lat.i.tude 35 degrees 6 minutes S and longitude 152 degrees 0 minutes E, where she had anch.o.r.ed for some days, being leaky. The master of this s.h.i.+p, Mr. Matthew Weatherhead, saw many whales, but was prevented from killing any by the badness of the weather.

The _William and Ann_ came in soon after, confirming the report of the great numbers of fish which were to be seen upon the coast, and the difficulty of getting at them. She had killed only one fish, and came in to repair and shorten her main-mast.

A difference of opinion prevailed among the masters of the s.h.i.+ps which had been out respecting the establis.h.i.+ng a whale-fishery upon this coast.

In one particular, however, they all agreed, which was, that the coast abounded with fish; but the major part of them thought that the currents and bad weather prevailing at this season of the year, and which appeared to be also the season of the fish, would prevent any s.h.i.+ps from meeting with that success, of which on their setting out they themselves had had such sanguine hopes. One of them thought that the others, in giving this opinion, were premature, and that they were not sufficiently acquainted with the weather on the coast to form any judgment of the advantage to be derived from future attempts. They were determined, nevertheless, to give it another trial, on the failure of which they meant to prosecute their voyage to the coast of Peru. Having set up their rigging, they went out again toward the latter end of the month.

About the middle of the month an alteration took place in the ration; two pounds of flour were taken off, and one pint of peas and one pint of oatmeal were issued in their stead; the full ration, which was first served on the 27th of August last, having been continued not quite three months.

The _Supply_ armed tender, having completed her repairs, sailed for England on the 26th, her commander, Lieutenant Ball, purposing to make his pa.s.sage round Cape Horn, for which the season of the year was favourable. Lieutenant John Creswell of the marines went in her, charged with the governor's dispatches.

The services of this little vessel had endeared her, and her officers and people, to this colony. The regret which we felt at parting with them was, however, lessened by a knowledge that they were flying from a country of want to one of abundance, where we all hoped that the services they had performed would be rewarded by that attention and promotion to which they naturally looked up, and had an indisputable claim.

At this time the public live stock in the settlement consisted of one stallion aged, one mare, two young stallions, two colts, sixteen cows, two calves, one ram, fifty ewes, six lambs, one boar, fourteen sows (old and young), and twenty-two pigs.

The ground in cultivation at and about Parramatta amounted to three hundred and fifty-one acres in maize, forty-four in wheat, six in barley, one in oats, two in potatoes, four in vines, eighty-six in garden ground, and seventeen in cultivation by the New South Wales corps. In addition to these there were one hundred and fifty acres cleared to be sown with turnips, ninety-one acres were in cultivation by settlers, twenty-eight by officers civil and military at and about Sydney; and at Parramatta one hundred and forty acres were inclosed and the timber thinned for cattle; making a total of nine hundred and twenty acres of land thinned, cleared, and cultivated.

The platform at the west point of the cove was completed during this month. The flag-staff had been for some time erected, and the cannon placed on the platform. A corporal's guard was also mounted daily in the building which had been used as an observatory by Lieutenant Dawes.

The mortality during this month had been great, fifty male and four female convicts dying within the thirty days. Five hundred sick persons received medicines at the end of the month. That list however was decreasing. The extreme heat of the weather during the month had not only increased the sick list, but had added one to the number of deaths. On the 4th, a convict attending upon Mr. White, in pa.s.sing from his house to his kitchen, without any covering upon his head, received a stroke from a ray of the sun which at the time deprived him of speech and motion, and, in less than four-and-twenty hours, of his life. The thermometer on that day stood at twelve o'clock at 94 degrees and the wind was at NW.

By the dry weather which prevailed our water had been so much affected, beside being lessened by the watering of some of the transports, that a prohibition was laid by the governor on the watering of the remainder at Sydney, and their boats were directed to go to a convenient place upon the north sh.o.r.e. To remedy this evil the governor had employed the stone-mason's gang to cut tanks out of the rock, which would be reservoirs for the water large enough to supply the settlement for some time.

December.] On the 3rd of this month the s.h.i.+ps _Albemarle_ and _Active_ sailed for India. After their departure several people were missing from the settlement; some whose sentences of transportation had expired, and others who were yet convicts. Previous to their sailing (it having been reported that the seamen intended to conceal such as had made interest among them to get off) the governor instructed the master to deliver any persons whom he might discover to be on board without permission to quit the colony, as prisoners to the commanding officer of the first British settlement they should touch at in India. About this time a boat belonging to Mr. White was taken from its mooring; and it was for a time supposed that she had been taken off by some runaways to get on board one of the s.h.i.+ps then about to sail, and afterwards set adrift; but she was found by some gentlemen of the _Gorgon_ the day after their departure, between this harbour and Broken Bay, with two men in her, who on the appearance of the party which found her ran into the woods. The gentlemen left her with a plank knocked out, an oar and the rudder broken, and otherwise rendered useless to the people who ran away with her. They also fell in with a convict, an Irishman, who had been absent five weeks from Parramatta, and who had set off with some others to proceed along the coast in search of another settlement. The boat was brought up a few days afterwards.

Two of the whalers, the _Matilda_ and _Mary Ann_, came in from sea the day on which the other s.h.i.+ps sailed. The former landed a boat in a bay on the coast about six miles to the southward of Port Stephens, where the seine was hauled and a large quant.i.ty of fish taken; but of the fish which they went to procure (whales) they saw none.

The _Mary Ann_ was rather more fortunate. By going to the southward, she killed nine fish; of five of them she secured enough to procure about thirty barrels of oil; but was prevented by bad weather from getting more. These s.h.i.+ps sailed again immediately, and both ran down the coast as far to the southward as 36 degrees 30 minutes, and returned on the 16th without killing a fish. The masters attributed their bad success to currents; and, giving up all hopes of a fishery here, they determined, after refitting, to quit the coast. The _Salamander_ and _Britannia_ whalers came in at the same time, and with like ill fortune. Melvill the master of the _Britannia_, who had been formerly so sanguine in his hopes of a fishery, seemed now to have adopted a different opinion, and hinted to some in the colony, that he did not think he should try the coast any longer. It must be remarked however, that the whalers were not out of port at any one time long enough to enable them to speak with any great degree of precision either for or against the probability of success.

They seemed more desirous of obtaining a knowledge of the harbours on the coast; the _William and Ann_ had been seen in Broken Bay; others had visited Botany Bay and Jervis Bay; the _Salamander_ had remained long enough in Port Stephens (an harbour to the northward, until then not visited by any one) to take an eye-sketch of the harbour and of some of its branches or arms; and Port Jackson was found to have its conveniences. After a well-manned and well-found whaler should have kept the sea for an entire season, the success might be determined.

The _Queen_ transport having returned from Norfolk Island, with the lieutenant-governor and the officers and soldiers of the marine corps, who were to take their pa.s.sage to England in the _Gorgon_, the greatest part of the marine detachment embarked on board of that s.h.i.+p on the 13th.

Those who did not embark were left for the duty of the place until the remainder of the New South Wales corps should arrive.

By the _Queen_ several convicts whose sentences of transportation had expired were allowed to return to this settlement, pursuant to a promise made them on their going thither; and we were informed, that the _Atlantic_ sailed from Norfolk Island for Calcutta on the 13th of the last month. Both s.h.i.+ps landed safely every article they had on board for the colony, being favoured by very fine weather while so employed.

Lieutenant-governor King, on taking upon him the government of the island, pardoned all offenders whom he found in custody.

Governor Phillip having no further occasion for the services of the _Gorgon_, that s.h.i.+p sailed for England on Sunday the 18th. Two convicts had the folly to attempt making their escape from the colony in this s.h.i.+p, but they were detected and brought back. A woman was also supposed to have effected her escape; but she was found disguised in men's apparel at the native's hut on the east point of the cove.

On board of the _Gorgon_ were embarked the marines who came from England in the first s.h.i.+ps; as valuable a corps as any in his Majesty's service.

They had struggled here with greatly more than the common hards.h.i.+ps of service, and were now quitting a country in which they had opened and smoothed the way for their successors, and from which, whatever benefit might hereafter be derived, must be derived by those who had the easy task of treading in paths previously and painfully formed by them.

The cove and the settlement were now resuming that dull uniformity of uninteresting circ.u.mstances which had generally prevailed. The _Supply_ and the _Gorgon_ had departed, and with them a valuable portion of our friends and a.s.sociates. The transports which remained were all preparing to leave us, and in a few days after the _Gorgon_, the _Matilda_ and _Mary Ann_ sailed for the coast of Peru. These s.h.i.+ps had some convicts on board, who were permitted to s.h.i.+p themselves with the masters.

A further reduction of the ration was directed to take place at the end of the month, one pound being taken from the allowance of flour served to the men. From the state of the provision stores, the governor, on Christmas Day, could only give one pound of flour to each woman in the settlement. On that day divine service was performed here and at Parramatta, Mr. Bayne, the chaplain of the new corps, a.s.sisting Mr.

Johnson in the religious duties of the morning. There were some among us, however, by whom even the sanct.i.ty of this day was not regarded; for at night the marine store was robbed of twenty-two gallons of spirits.

At Parramatta various offences were still committed, notwithstanding the lenity which had been shown to several offenders at the close of the last month. Many of the convicts there not having any part of their ration left when Tuesday or Wednesday night came, the governor directed, as he had before done from the same reason, that the provisions of the labouring convicts should be issued to them daily. This measure being disapproved of by them, they a.s.sembled in rather a tumultuous manner before the governor's house at Parramatta on the last day of the month, to request that their provisions might be served as usual on the Sat.u.r.days. The governor, however, dispersed them without granting their request; and as they were heard to murmur, and talk of obtaining by different means what was refused to entreaty (words spoken among the crowd, and the person who was so daring not being distinguishable from the rest), he a.s.sured them that as he knew the major part of them were led by eight or ten designing men to whom they looked up, and to whose names he was not a stranger, on any open appearance of discontent, he should make immediate examples of them. Before they were dismissed they promised greater propriety of conduct and implicit obedience to the orders of their superiors, and declared their readiness to receive their provisions as had been directed.

This was the first instance of any tumultuous a.s.sembly among these people, and was now to be ascribed to the spirit of resistance and villany lately imported by the new comers from England and Ireland.

Among the public works of the month the most material was the completing and occupying the new store on the east side, which was begun in October last; its dimensions were eighty by twenty-four feet; and as it was built for the purpose of containing dry stores, the height was increased beyond that commonly adopted here, and a s.p.a.cious loft was formed capable of containing a large quant.i.ty of bale goods. This was by far the best store in the country.

In the course of the month a warrant of emanc.i.p.ation pa.s.sed the seal of the territory to John Lowe, Henry Cone, Richard Chears, Thomas Fisk, Daniel Cubitt, Charles Pa.s.s, George Bolton, William Careless, William Curtis, John Chapman Morris, Thomas Merrick, William Skinner, and James Weavers, convicts who left England in the _Guardian_, on condition of their residing within the limits of this government, and not returning to England within the period of their respective sentences. Instructions to this effect had been received from home, Lieutenant Riou having interested himself much in their behalf. They were to be at liberty to work at any trade they might be acquainted with; but during their continuance in the country they were to be disposed of wherever the governor should think proper. They were also at liberty to settle land upon their own account.

The numbers who died by sickness in the year 1791 were, one of the civil establishment (H. E. Dodd); two soldiers; one hundred and fifty-five male and eight female convicts; and five children: in all one hundred and seventy-one persons (twenty-eight more than had died during the preceding year).

In the above time one male convict was executed; one drowned; four lost in the woods (exclusive of the Irish convicts who had absconded, of whom no certain account was procured); one destroyed himself, and eight men, one woman, and two children, had run from the settlement; making a loss of one hundred and eighty-nine persons.