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 £2957 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 £15 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:
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.
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 £100 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 £19 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 £6636 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 £9603 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 £120 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: