CHAPTER XXVI

The William sails
Cultivation
Excursion in search of a river
A storeship arrives
Captain Bampton
Full ration
The Britannia, Speedy, and Halcyon arrive
The Indispensable and Halcyon sail
The Fanny arrives from Bombay
Information
Two convicts executed
The Hope sails

May.] Early in this month the William sailed on her fishing voyage to the coast of Peru. Mr. Folger, her master, purposed trying what success might be met with on this coast for a few weeks, it being the wish of his owners in consequence of the reports brought home by some of the whaling ships which were here in 1792. If he should be at all fortunate, he intended to return to this port with the account; it being the anxious wish of every officer in the colony to hear of any thing that was likely to make a return to the mother country for the immense sums which must annually have been expended on this settlement.

Some dispatches and returns being sent by this ship, it appeared, that here and at Norfolk Island were existing, at the latter end of last month, four thousand four hundred and fourteen persons of all descriptions, men, women, and children. Estimating the daily expense of these at two shillings a head, (a fair calculation, when every article of provisions, clothing, stores, freight of ships, allowance for civil and military establishments, damaged cargoes, etc., etc. was considered,) it will be found to amount annually to the sum of one hundred and sixty-one thousand one hundred and eleven pounds; an expense that called loudly for every exertion toward easing the mother country of such a burden, by doing away our dependence on her for many of the above articles, or by affording a return that would be equal to some part of this expence.

Separated as we were from Europe, constantly liable to accidents interrupting our supplies, which it might not always be possible to guard against or foresee, how cheering, how grateful was it to every thinking mind among us, to observe the rapid strides we were making toward that desirable independence! The progress made in the cultivation of the country insured the consequent increase of live stock; and it must be remembered, that the colony had been supplied with no other grain than that raised within itself since the 16th day of last December.

The permission given to officers to hold lands had operated powerfully in favour of the colony. They were liberal in their employment of people to cultivate those lands; and such had been their exertions, that it appeared by a survey taken in the last month by Mr. Alt, that nine hundred and eighty-two acres had been cleared by them since that permission had been received. Mr. Alt reported, that there had been cleared, since Governor Phillip's departure in December 1792, two thousand nine hundred and sixty-two acres and one quarter; which, added to seventeen hundred and three acres and a half that were cleared at that time, made a total of four thousand six hundred and sixty-five acres and three quarters of cleared ground in this territory. It must be farther remarked in favour of the gentlemen holding ground, that in the short period of fifteen months*, the officers, civil and military, had cleared more than half the whole quantity of ground that had been cleared by government and the settlers, from the establishment of the colony to the date of the governor's departure. The works of government, however vigilantly attended to, always proceeded slowly, and never with that spirit and energy that are created by interest.

[* The officers did not begin to open ground until February 1793.]

The people who were to labour for the public had in general been but scantily fed, and this operated against any great exertions. The settlers were not fed any better; and though they had an interest in working with spirit, yet they always looked to be supplied from the public stores beyond the time allowed them; and were consequently careless, indolent, and poor: while the officer, from the hour he received his grant, applied himself with activity to derive a benefit from it; and it was not too much to say, that the independence of the colony was more likely to be attained through their exertions, than by any other means. To encourage them, therefore, was absolutely necessary to accelerate and promote the prosperity of the colony.

One woman and six men, whose terms of transportation had expired, were permitted to quit the colony in the William.

Some natives, who had observed the increasing number of the settlers on the banks of the Hawkesbury, and had learned that we were solicitous to discover other fresh-water rivers, for the purpose of forming settlements, assured us, that at no very great distance from Botany Bay, there was a river of fresh water which ran into the sea. As very little of the coast to the southward was known, it was determined to send a small party in that direction, with provisions for a few days, it not being improbable that, in exploring the country, a river might be found which had hitherto escaped the observation of ships running along the coast.

Two people of sufficient judgment and discretion for the purpose being found among the military, they set off from the south shore of Botany Bay on the 14th, well armed, and furnished with provisions for a week. They were accompanied by a young man, a native, as a guide, who professed a knowledge of the country, and named the place where the fresh water would be found to run. Great expectations were formed of this excursion, from the confidence with which the native repeatedly asserted the existence of a freshwater river; on the 20th, however, the party returned, with an account, that the native had soon walked beyond his own knowledge of the country, and trusted to them to bring him safe back; that having penetrated about twenty miles to the southward of Botany Bay, they came to a large inlet of the sea, which formed a small harbour; the head of this they rounded, without discovering any river of fresh water near it. The country they described as high and rocky in the neighbourhood of the harbour, which, on afterwards looking into the chart, was supposed to be somewhere about Red Point. The native returned with the soldiers as cheerfully and as well pleased as if he had led them to the banks of the first river in the world.

An excursion of another nature was at this time framing among some discontented Irish convicts, and was on the point of being carried into execution when discovered. Among those who came out in the last ships from Ireland was a convict who had been an attorney in that kingdom, and who was weak enough to form the hazardous scheme with several others of seizing a long-boat, in which they were to endeavour to reach Batavia. A quantity of provisions, water-casks, sails, and other necessary articles, were provided, and were found, at the time of making the discovery, in the house of the principal. These people had much greater reason to rejoice at, than to regret, the discovery of their plot; for the wind, on the day succeeding the night in which they were to have gone off, blew a heavy gale; and, as there were no professed seamen in the party, it was more than probable that the boat would have been lost. The greatest evil that attended these desertions was the loss of the boats which were taken off, for the colony could not sustain much injury by the absence of a few wretches who were too idle to labour, and who must be constantly whispering their own discontents among the other convicts.

On the 24th of this month we had the satisfaction of seeing the Indispensable, a storeship, anchor in the cove from England, with a cargo consisting principally of provisions for the colony. We understood that she was the first of six or seven ships which were all to bring out stores and provisions, and which, if no accident happened in the passage, might be expected to arrive in the course of two months. The supply of clothing and provisions intended to be conveyed by them, together with what had been received by the William, was calculated for the consumption of a twelvemonth. The quantity which now arrived in the Indispensable formed a supply of flour for twelve weeks, beef for four ditto, pork for four ditto, and of peas for fourteen ditto. She sailed from Spithead the 26th of last December, touched at Teneriffe and at the Cape of Good Hope, from which place she sailed on the 30th of March last, and made the South Cape of this country the 17th of this month. Between the Cape of Good Hope and this port, the master stated that he found the weather in general very rough, and the prevailing winds to have blown from WNW to SW.

At the Cape of Good Hope Mr. Wilkinson met with the Chesterfield, which sailed hence in April 1793 with the Shah Hormuzear; and one of her people, who had been formerly a convict in this country, wishing to return to it, we now collected from him some information respecting Mr. Bampton's voyage. He told us, that the two ships were six months in their passage hence to Timor, owing to the difficulty which they met with in the navigation of the straits between New Holland and New Guinea. On one of the islands in these straits they lost a boat, which had been sent on shore to trade with the natives. In this boat went, never to return (according to this person's account), Captain Hill; Mr. Carter, a friend of Mr. Bampton's;--Shaw, the first mate of the Chesterfield;--Ascott, who had been a convict here, and who had distinguished himself at the time the Sirius was lost; and two or three black people belonging to the Shah Hormuzear. It was conjectured that they were, immediately after landing, murdered by the natives, as the people of a boat that was sent some hours after to look for them found only the clothes which they had on when they left the ship, and a lantern and tinder-box which they had taken with them; the clothes were torn into rags. At a fire they found three hands; but they were so black and disfigured by being burnt, that the people could not ascertain whether they had belonged to black or white men. If the account of this man might be credited, the end of these unfortunate gentlemen and their companions must have been truly horrid and deplorable; it was however certain that the ships sailed from the island without them, and their fate was left in uncertainty, though every possible effort to discover them was made by Mr. Bampton.

At Timor Mr. Bampton took in a very valuable freight of sandal wood, with which he proceeded to Batavia; and when the Chesterfield parted company, he hoped soon to return to this country.

In consequence of the supplies received by the Indispensable, the full ration of flour was directed to be issued, and the commissary was ordered not to receive for the present any more Indian corn that might be brought to the public stores for sale. The following weekly ration was established until further orders, and commenced on the 27th:

Flour eight pounds; beef seven pounds or pork four pounds; Indian corn three pints, in lieu of peas.

The whole quantity of Indian corn purchased by the commissary on account of Government from settlers and others amounted to six thousand one hundred and sixty-three bushels and a quarter, which, taken at five shillings per bushel, came to the sum of £1540 16s 3d.

Toward the latter end of this month, Wilkinson, the millwright, was drowned in a pond in the neighbourhood of the Hawkesbury River. He had been there on a Sunday with some of the settlers to shoot ducks, and getting entangled with the weeds in the pond was drowned, though a good swimmer; thus untimely perishing before he could reap any reward from his industry and abilities.

Several people still continued to complain of sore eyes, but the disorder was disappearing fast.

June.] The signal for a sail was made in the morning of the first of June, and was conjectured to be for one of the ships expected to arrive from England; but in a few hours word was brought that the Britannia was safe within the harbour. This arrival gave general satisfaction, as many doubts about her return had been created by some accounts which the master of the Indispensable had heard at the Cape of Good Hope, of the Bay of Bengal being full of French privateers.

On Mr. Raven's arrival at the settlement, we learned that he had been forced to go to Batavia instead of Bengal, having been attacked in the Straits of Malacca by a fleet of piratical Proas, which engaged him for six hours, and from whom he might have found some difficulty to escape, had he not fortunately killed the captain of the one which was nearest to the Britannia when in the act of making preparations for boarding him. At Batavia he was informed that his passage to Bengal was very precarious, from the number of French privateers which infested the bay, as well as the west coast of Sumatra, several vessels having arrived at Batavia which had been chased by them. Mr. Raven, therefore, determined to load the Britannia at Batavia, and, after some necessary arrangements with the governor-general and council, purchased the following cargo at the annexed prices for the settlements in New South Wales, viz

[* Forty-eight stivers the rix dollar.]

[** Pecol, one hundred and thirty-three pounds English.]

[*** Coyang, three thousand three hundred and seventy-five pounds Dutch.]

[* She was chartered at fourteen shillings and sixpence per ton per month, and to be paid for two hundred and ninety-six tons, her registered measurement.]

Captain Nepean, who left this place as a passenger in the Britannia, and took with him some dispatches for government, and the private letters of the officers, left Batavia on the 17th of February last in the Prince William Henry, a fast sailing schooner, bound direct for England.

The Britannia arrived at Batavia on the 11th of February, and sailed for this country on the 10th of April following. While she lay at Batavia, the season was extremely unhealthy, and some of her people fell victims to the well-known insalubrity of the climate.

At Batavia Mr. Raven learned that the Shah Hormuzear sailed from thence for Bombay three months before he arrived there; and the report we had heard of the disaster which befel the boat and people from that ship, in the passage through the Straits between this country and New Guinea, was confirmed at Batavia. As, however, Mr. Bampton had not since been heard of, it was more than probable he had fallen a prize to some of the privateers which were to be met with in those seas.

His Majesty's birthday did not pass without that distinction which we all, as Englishmen devoted to our sovereign, had infinite pleasure in showing it.

On the 8th the Speedy, a storeship commanded by Mr. Melville, who was here in 1791 in the Britannia whaler, anchored in the cove from England, with a cargo of stores and provisions for the colony, and clothing for the New South Wales corps. Mr. Melville sailed a few hours before the Indispensable, and touched at Rio de Janeiro, whence he had a long passage of several weeks. He made the south cape of this country the 2nd instant; and arrived here in a leaky and weak condition.

Good fortune befriended us in the passage of this ship; for she ran safely through every part where there could be danger, without a gun on board to defend her from an enemy if she should have met with any.

On the 14th, a few hours after the signal was made at the South Head, arrived in the harbour the Halcyon, a ship from Rhode Island, commanded by Mr. Benjamin Page, who was here in the ship Hope at the close of the year 1792, and who had ventured here again with a cargo of provisions and spirits* on speculation.

[* Eight hundred barrels of beef and pork, American cured. About five thousand gallons of spirits; a small quantity of tobacco, tea, nankeens, etc.]

Mr. Page made his passage from Rhode Island in one hundred and fifteen days, and without touching at any port. His run from the south cape of New Holland was only five days. The ship he built himself at Providence, after his return from China in the Hope. That ship was only two months in her voyage from hence to Canton, and Mr. Page did not see any land until he made the Island of Tinian. This place he now represented as well calculated to furnish a freight of cattle for this colony.

Of the convicts that Mr. Page was permitted to ship at this port in his last voyage, William Murphy behaved so extremely ill, having more than once endeavoured to excite the crew to mutiny, that at St Helena he delivered him to the captain of his Majesty's ship Powerful, whom he found there. This proved in the event a circumstance of great good fortune to Murphy, for, being directly rated on that ship's books (his abilities as a sail-maker entitling him to that situation), and a French East Indiamen being captured by the Powerful a very few hours after, he became entitled to a seaman's share of the produce of her cargo, which was a very valuable one.

Bateman he carried on with him to Rhode Island, where he married, but had more than once exhibited symptoms of returning to habits which he had not forgotten, and which would soon bring him to disgrace in his new situation. Shepherd he had put on board a ship bound to Ostend, and spoke well of his conduct.

Captain Page at first thought he had come to a bad market with his provisions; for the day was arrived when we found ourselves enabled to say that we were not in want of any casual supplies; but by the end of the month he declared he had not made a bad voyage; his spirits and provisions were nearly all purchased by individuals; and what he at first thought an unprofitable circumstance to him (the sight of four ships at anchor in the cove) proved favourable, for the most of his provisions were disposed of among the shipping. The whole of the spirits were purchased by the officers of the settlement and of the garrison at the rate of six shillings per gallon; and afforded, together with what had been received from Batavia by the Britannia, a large and comfortable supply of that article for a considerable time.

It might be safely pronounced, that the colony never wore so favourable an appearance as at this period: our public stores filled with wholesome provisions; five ships on the seas with additional supplies; and wheat enough in the ground to promise the realizing of many a golden dream; a rapidly increasing stock; a country gradually opening, and improving every where upon us as it opened; with a spirit universally prevalent of cultivating it.

The ships which had lately arrived from England were fraught with the dismal and ill-founded accounts, which through some evil design continued to be insidiously propagated, of the wretched unprofitable soil of New South Wales. It was hoped, however, that when the present appearance and state of the colony should reach England, every attempt to mislead the public would cease; and such encouragement be held out as would induce individuals to settle in the country.

In the Halcyon arrived an American gentleman (Mr. W. Megee) in the character of supercargo. This person, on seeing the Toongabbie hills covered with a most promising crop of wheat, declared that be had never seen better in America, even at Rhode island, the garden of America; and on being shown some Indian corn of last year's growth, gave it as his opinion, that we wanted nothing but large herds of grazing cattle, to be a thriving, prosperous, and great colony, possessing within itself all the essential articles of life.

We ourselves had long been impressed with an idea of the advantage that grazing cattle would give to the country; every possible care was taken of the little that was in it, and all means used to promote its increase. One step toward this was the keeping up the price; an article. by which the proprietor was always certain of making a great profit, was as certain to be taken the greatest care of, every individual possessing stock found it his interest to preserve it in the highest order, that it might be deemed equal to the general high value which stock bore.

By an account which was taken at the end of this month of the live stock in the colony, the following numbers appeared to be in the possession of government and of individuals, viz.

In this account the hogs (from their being so disposed as not easily to be ascertained) were not included; but they were supposed to amount to several hundreds.

As a reserve in time of great distress, when alone it could be made use of, this stock was, when compared with our numbers, no very great dependance; but it was every thing as a stock to breed from, and well deserving of attention to cherish it and promote its increase.

On the last day of the month the Francis schooner sailed for Norfolk Island, whither she was sent merely to apprise Mr. King that the Daedalus would be dispatched to him immediately after the return of the schooner, with such stores and provisions as he should require.

During this month the house of the Rev. Mr. Johnson was broken into at night, and robbed of sugar, coffee, arrack, Russia sheeting, and other articles to a large amount. There was little doubt but that some of his own people had either committed the burglary, or had given information to others how and when it might be committed, as the part of the house broken into was that which Mr. Johnson had applied to a store-room. Several people were taken up, and some of the articles found concealed in the woods; but those who stole them had address enough to avoid discovery.

Very shortly after this a most daring burglary was committed in a house in the old marine quarters occupied by Mr. Kent, who arrived here in the Boddingtons from Ireland in August last, as agent of convicts on the part of Government. He had secured the door with a padlock, and after sun-set had gone up to one of the officers' barracks, where he was spending the evening, when, before nine o'clock, word was brought him that his house had been broken into. On going down, he found that the staple, which was a very strong one, had been forced out, and a large chest that would require four men to convey it out of the door had been taken off. It contained a great quantity of wearing apparel, money, bills, and letters; but, though the theft could not have been long committed, all the search that twenty or thirty people made for some hours that night was ineffectual, no trace being seen of it, and nothing found but a large caulking-iron, with which it was supposed the staple was wrenched off. The chest was found the next morning behind a barrack (which had lately been fitted up as a place of divine worship for the accommodation of the chaplain of the New South Wales corps), and some of the wearing apparel was brought in from the woods; but Mr. Kent's loss was very little diminished by this recovery.

In addition to these burglaries a highway robbery was committed on the supercargo of the American, who was attacked in the dusk of the evening, close by one of the barracks, by two men, who, in the moment of striking him, seized hold of his watch, and with a violent jerk wrenched off the seals, the watch falling on the ground. The place was, however, too public to risk staying to look for it; and the owner was fortunate enough to find it himself, but the seals, which were of gold, were carried off.

All these offences against peace and good order were to be attributed to the horrid vice of gaming, which was still pursued in this place, and which, from the management and address of those who practised it, could not be prevented. The persons of the peace-officers were well known to them; and, that they might never be detected in the fact, one of the party, commonly the greatest loser, was always stationed on the look-out to alarm in time.

During this month the millwright Buffin completed the mill which he was constructing in the room of Wilkinson's; and, on its being worked, it was found to answer still better than the first which he made. The body of Wilkinson, after being dragged for several days in vain, was found at last floating on the surface of the pond where he lost his life, and being brought into Parramatta was there decently interred.

Of the few who died in this month was one, a male convict, of the name of Peter Gillies, who came out to this country in the Neptune transport in the year 1791. His death took place on the morning of the arrival of the Speedy from England, by which ship a letter was received addressed to him, admonishing him of the uncertainty of life, recommending him early to begin to think of the end of it, and acquainting him of the death of his wife, a child, and two other near relations. He had ceased to breathe before this unwelcome intelligence reached the hospital.

July.] The signal for a sail was made at the South Head between seven and eight o'clock in the morning of the 5th of July; and soon after the Hope, an American ship from Rhode Island, anchored in the cove, having on board a cargo of salted provisions and spirits on speculation. This ship was here before with Captain Page, the commander of the Halcyon, and now came in the same employ, the house of Brown and Francis at Providence. Brown was the uncle of Page, between whom there being some misunderstanding, Page built and freighted the Halcyon after the departure of the Hope, whose master being ordered to touch at the Falkland's Islands, Page determined to precede him, in his arrival at this country, and have the first of the market, in which he succeeded.

This proved a great disappointment to the master of the Hope, who indeed sold his spirits at three shillings and sixpence per gallon; but his salted provisions no one would purchase.

The Hope was seven days in her passage from the South Cape to this port; and the master said, that off Cape St. George he met with a current which carried him during the space of three days a degree to the southward each day.

On the 8th the Indispensable and Halcyon sailed on their respective voyages, the former for Bengal, and the latter for Canton. The Indispensable was a large stout ship, provided with a letter of marque, well manned and armed; and had been captured from the French at the beginning of the present war. The master was permitted to receive on board several persons from the colony, on his representing that he was short of hands to navigate his ship; and two convicts found means to make their escape from the settlement. A third was discovered concealed on board for the same purpose, and being brought on shore, it appeared that the coxswain of the lieutenant-governor's boat had assisted him in his attempt; for which he was punished and turned out of the boat, such a breach of trust deserving and requiring to be particularly noticed.

By the Halcyon were sent some dispatches to be forwarded by the way of China to his Majesty's secretary of state for the home department. The day following the departure of these two ships, the Fancy snow arrived from Bombay, having on board a small quantity of rice and dholl*, intended as part of the contract entered into by Captain Bampton, who, we now learned, had arrived safe at Bombay, after a long passage from this place of between six and seven months. This vessel was commanded by Mr. Thomas Edgar Dell, formerly chief mate of Mr. Bampton's ship the Shah Hormuzear, from whom the following information was received.

[* Thirty-eight tons of rice, and thirty-eight tons of dholl. Captain Bampton also sent twenty-four bags of seed-wheat.]

The ships Shah Hormuzear and Chesterfield sailed, as before related, from Norfolk Island on the 27th of May 1793. On the 2nd of the following month a reef was seen in latitude 19 degrees 28 minutes S and longitude 158 degrees 32 minutes 15 seconds East. On the 1st of July, being then in latitude 9 degrees 39 minutes 30 seconds S and longitude 142 degrees 59 minutes 15 seconds East of Greenwich, they fell in with an island which obtained the name of Tate's Island, and at which they had the misfortune to stave a boat as before mentioned. The circumstances of the murder of Captain Hill, Mr. Carter, Shaw the first mate of the Chesterfield, and the boat's crew, were related by Mr. Dell. It appeared from his account, that they had landed to search for fresh water, and purposed remaining one night on the island to barter with the natives, and procure emu feathers from them. The day after they were put on shore the weather changed, coming on to blow hard; the ship was driven to leeward of the bay in which they landed; and it was not until the third day that it was possible to send a boat after them. Mr. Dell himself was employed on this occasion, and returned with the melancholy account of his being unable to discover their lost companions. An armed force was then sent on shore, but succeeded only in burning the huts and inclosures of the natives. At a fire they found some incontestable proofs that their friends could not be living; of three human hands which they took up, one, by some particular marks, was positively thought by Mr. Dell to have belonged to Mr. Carter; their great coats were also found with the buttons cut off, a tinderbox, a lantern, a tomahawk, and other articles from the boat, were also found; but though they rowed entirely round the island, looking into every cove or creek, the boat could not be seen. Mr. Dell was, if possible, to procure two prisoners; but he could not succeed. In the intercourse, however, which he had with them, they gave him to understand by signs, that they had killed all who were in the boat, except two: at least, so Mr. Dell thought; but if it was so, nothing could be hoped from the exception, nor could any other conclusion be formed, than that they were reserved perhaps for more deliberate torture and a more horrid end.

This island was described as abounding with the red sweet potato, sugar cane, plantains, bamboo, cocoa trees, and mangroves. The natives appeared stout, and were in height from five feet eight to six feet two inches; their colour dark, and their language harsh and disagreeable. The weapons which were seen were spears, lances made of a hard black wood, and clubs about four feet in length. They lived in huts resembling a hay-cock, with a pole driven through the middle, formed of long grass and the leaves of the cocoa tree. These huts might contain six or eight persons each, and were inclosed with a fence of bamboo. In a corner of some of the huts which they entered, they perceived a wooden image, intended to resemble a man; in others the figure of a bird, very rudely carved, daubed with red, and curiously decorated with the feathers of the emu. Over these images were suspended from the roof several strings of human hands, each string having five or six hands on it. In some they found small piles of human skulls; and in one, in which there was a much larger pile of skulls than in any other that they had visited, they observed some gum burning before a wooden image.

This island was supposed to be about eight miles in length, five in breadth, and fifteen in circumference; a coral reef seemed to guard it from all approach, except on the north-west part which formed a bay, where the ship anchored in thirteen fathoms water. Fresh water was seen only in one place.

Mr. Bampton did not arrive at Timor until the 11th of September, having been detained in the straits by a most difficult and dangerous navigation. By this passage he had an opportunity of discovering that the straits which were named after Torres, and supposed to have been passed first by him in the year 1606, and afterwards by Green in 1722, could never have existed; for Mr. Bampton now observed, that New Guinea extended ninety miles to the southward of this supposed track.

Of the two convicts taken from hence by the Shah Hormuzear, John Ascot was killed by the natives with Captain Hill, and Catharine Pryor, Ascot's wife, died two days before the ship got to Batavia, of a spotted fever, the effect of frequent inebriety while at Timor. Ascot was the young man whose activity prevented the Sirius, with the stores and provisions on board, from being burnt the night after she was wrecked off Norfolk Island, and thereby saved that settlement from feeling absolute want at that time.

Captain Dell was full three months in his passage from Bombay; during the latter part of which time the people on board suffered great distress from a shortness of water and fuel. Out of seventy-five persons, mostly Lascars, with whom he sailed, nine died, and a fever existed among those who remained on his arrival.

The people who had broken into Mr. Kent's house were so daring as to send to that gentleman a letter in miserable verse, containing some invectives against one Bevan, a prisoner in confinement for a burglary, and a woman who they supposed had given information of the people that broke into the clergyman's storeroom, which affair they took upon themselves. The letter was accompanied by a pocket-book belonging to Mr. Kent, and some of his papers; but none of the bills which were in it when it was stolen were returned.

The insolence of this proceeding, and the frequency of those nocturnal visits, surprised and put all persons on their guard; but that the enemy was within our own doors there was no doubt. An honest servant was in this country an invaluable treasure; we were compelled to take them as chance should direct from among the common herd; and if any one was found who had some remains of principle in him, he was sure to be soon corrupted by the vice which every where surrounded him.

It became necessary at length for the criminal justice of the settlement to interfere, and three convicts were tried for burglaries. John Bevan, though tried on two charges, was acquitted from a want of evidence, and others, John Flemming and Archibald McDonald, were convicted. The latter of these two had broken into a soldier's hut the night before the court sat, and at a time when it was publicly known in the settlement that it was to sit for the trial of such offenders as might be brought before it. The state of the colony called loudly for their punishment, and they were both executed the third day after their conviction. It was afterwards said, that McDonald was one of the party who broke into the clergyman's house.

Soon after these executions, Caesar*, still incorrigible, took up again his former practice of subsisting in the woods by plundering the farms and huts at the outskirts of the towns. He was soon taken; but on his being punished, and that with some severity, he declared with exultation and contempt, that 'all that would not make him better.'

[* See Chapter VII, from "Toward the end of the month, some convicts having reported . . ." et seq.]

The Hope sailed this month for Canton, the master being suffered to take with him one man, John Pardo Watts, who had served his time of transportation.

The Britannia was also hired in this month by some of the officers of the civil and military departments, to procure them cattle and other articles at the Cape of Good Hope.

During this month a building, consisting of four cells for prisoners, was added to the guard-house on the east side of the cove. This had long been greatly wanted; and, the whole being now inclosed with a strong high paling, some advantage was expected to be derived from confinement adopted only as a punishment.

CHAPTER XXVII

The Speedy sails and returns
Excursion to the western mountains
The Francis returns from Norfolk Island
Corn bills not paid
The Britannia sails for the Cape, and the Speedy on her fishing voyage
Notification respecting the corn bills
The Resolution and Salamander arrive from England
Irish prisoners troublesome
Gales of wind
Natives
Daedalus sails for Norfolk Island
Emancipations
The Fancy sails
A death
Bevan executed
A settler murdered at Parramatta
The Mercury arrives
Spanish ships
Emancipation
Settlers and natives
Civil Court
The Surprize arrives
Deaths
Resolution and Salamander sail
Transactions
The Daedalus returns from Norfolk Island
The Mercury sails for America
The Lieutenant-Governor leaves the Settlement
The Daedalus sails for England, and the Surprize for Bengal
The Experiment arrives
Captain Paterson assumes the government pro tempore
Ration
Deaths in 1794

August.] Mr. Melville sailed on his intended fishing voyage on the second of this month. He talked of returning in about fourteen days, during which time he meant to visit Jervis and Bateman Bays to the southward, as well as to try once more what fortune might attend him as a whaler upon the coast. He returned, however, on the 8th, without having seen a fish, or visited either of the bays, having experienced a constant and heavy gale of wind at ESE since he left the port, which forced him to sail under a reefed foresail during the whole of its continuance.

In the evening of the day on which he sailed hence, the people at the South Head made the signal for a sail; but it was imagined, that as they had lost sight of the Speedy in the morning, they had perhaps seen her again in the evening on another tack, as the wind had shifted. But when this was mentioned to Mr. Melville at his return, he said that it was not possible for the Speedy to have been seen in the evening of the day she sailed, as she stood right off the land; and he added, that he himself, in the close of the evening, imagined he saw a sail off Botany Bay. No ship, however, making her appearance during the month, it was generally supposed that the people at the Look-out must have been mistaken.

A passage over the inland mountains which form the western boundary of the county of Cumberland being deemed practicable, Henry Hacking, a seaman (formerly quarter-master in the Sirius, but left here from the Royal Admiral), set off on the 20th of the month, with a companion or two, determined to try it. On the 27th they returned with an account of their having penetrated twenty miles further inland than any other European. Hacking reported, that on reaching the mountains, his further route lay over eighteen or nineteen ridges of high rocks; and that when he halted, determined to return, he still had in view before him the same wild and inaccessible kind of country. The summits of these rocks were of iron stone, large fragments of which had covered the intermediate valleys, in which water of a reddish tinge was observed to stagnate in many spots. The soil midway up the ascent appeared good, and afforded shelter and food for several red kangaroos. The ground every where bore signs of being frequently visited by high winds; for on the sides exposed to the south and south-east it was strewed with the trunks of large trees. They saw but one native in this desolate region, and he fled from their approach, preferring the enjoyments of his rocks and woods, with liberty, to any intercourse with them. These hills appearing to extend very far to the northward an impassable barrier seemed fixed to the westward; and southward, and little hope was left of our extending cultivation beyond the limits of the county of Cumberland.

On the following day the Francis schooner returned from Norfolk Island, having been absent about eight weeks and three days. Her passage thither was made in ten days, and her return in thirty-eight days, having met with very bad weather.

From Mr. King we learned that his harvest had been prodigiously productive. He had purchased from the first crops which the settlers brought to market upwards of eleven thousand bushels of maize; and bills for the amount were drawn by him in favour of the respective settlers; but, requiring the sanction of the lieutenant-governor, they were now sent to Port Jackson. Mr. King had been partly induced to make this provisional kind of purchase, under an idea that the corn would be acceptable at Port Jackson, and also in compliance with the conditions on which the settlers had received their respective allotments under the regulations of Governor Phillip; that is to say, that their overplus grain and stock should be purchased from them at a fair market price. Being, however, well stocked with that article already, the lieutenant-governor did not think himself justifiable in putting the crown to so great an expense (nearly three thousand pounds sterling) and declined accepting the bills.

Had we been in want of maize, Mr. King could have supplied us with twenty thousand bushels of it, much of which must now inevitably perish, unless the settlers would, agreeably to a notification which the governor intended to send them by the first opportunity, receive their corn again from the public stores.

Mr. King had the satisfaction to write that every thing went on well in his little island, excepting that some discontent appeared among the marine settlers, and some others, on account of his not purchasing their second crops of corn. As some proof of the existence of this dissatisfaction, one marine settler and three others arrived in the schooner, who had given up their farms and entered into the New South Wales corps; and it was reported that most of the marine settlers intended to follow their example.

This circumstance naturally gave rise to an inquiry, what would be the consequence if ever Government should, from farming on their own account, raise a quantity of wheat and maize sufficient for the consumption of those in the different settlements who were victualled by the crown. If such a system should be adopted, the settler would be deprived of a market for his overplus grain, would find himself cut off from the means of purchasing any of those comforts which his family must inevitably require, and would certainly quit a country that merely held out to him a daily subsistence; as he would look, if he was ordinarily wise, for something beyond that. It might be said, that the settler would raise stock for the public; but government would do the same, and so prevent him from every chance of providing for a family beyond the present day.

As it was desirable that those settlers who had become such from convicts should remain in this country, the only inducement they could have would be that of raising to themselves a comfortable independence for the winter of their own lives and the summer of their progeny. Government must therefore, to encourage the settler, let him be the farmer, and be itself the purchaser. The Government can always fix its own price; and the settler will be satisfied if he can procure himself the comforts he finds requisite, and lay by a portion of his emoluments for that day when he can no longer till the field with the labour of his own hands. With this encouragement and prospect, New South Wales would hold out a most promising field for the industrious; and might even do more: it might prove a valuable resource and acceptable asylum for many broken and reduced families, who, for want of it, become through misfortunes chargeable to their respective parishes.

Notwithstanding the weather was unfavourable during the whole of this month, the wheat every where looked well, particularly at the settlement near the Hawkesbury; the distance to which place had lately been ascertained by an officer who walked thither from Sydney in two minutes less than eight hours. He computed the distance to be thirty-two miles.

The weather during the whole of this month was very unpleasant and turbulent. Much rain, and the wind strong at south, marked by far the greatest part of it. On the 25th, the hot land-wind visited us for the first time this season, blowing until evening with much violence, when it was succeeded (as usually happened after so hot a day) by the wind at south.

September.] On the 1st of September the Britannia sailed for the Cape of Good Hope, on a second voyage of speculation for some of the civil and military officers of the settlement. In her went, with dispatches, Mr. David Wake Bell, and Mr. Richard Kent (gentlemen who arrived here in the Boddingtons and Sugar Cane transports, charged with the superintendance and medical care of the convicts from Ireland). The Speedy also sailed on her fishing voyage, the master intending not to consume any longer time in an unsuccessful trial of this coast. Several persons were permitted to take their passage in these ships; among others, Richard Blount, for whom a free pardon had some time since been received from the secretary of state's office.

Soon after the departure of these ships, the lieutenant-governor, having previously transmitted with his other dispatches an account of the transaction to the secretary of state, thought it necessary to issue a public order, calculated to impress on the minds of those settlers and others at Norfolk Island who might think themselves aggrieved by his late determination of not ordering payment to be made for the corn purchased of them by Lieutenant-governor King, a conviction that although he should on all occasions be ready to adopt any plan which the lieutenant-governor might devise for the accommodation or advantage of the inhabitants at Norfolk Island, yet in this business he made objections, because he did not consider himself authorised to ratify the agreement.

He proposed to those who held the bills to take back their corn; or, if they preferred leaving it in the public stores until such time as an answer could be received from the secretary of state, he assured them that they might depend on the earliest communication of whatever might be his decision; and that if such decision should be to refuse the payment of the bills, he promised that grain should be returned equal in quantity and quality to what had been received from them.*

[* Governor Hunter on his arrival ordered the bills to be paid, which was afterwards confirmed by the secretary of state.]

How far the settlers (who in return for the produce of their grounds looked for something more immediately beneficial to them and their families, than the waiting eighteen months or two years for a refusal, instead of payment of these bills) would be satisfied with this order, was very questionable. It has been seen already, that they were dissatisfied at the produce of their second crops not being purchased; what then must be their ideas on finding even the first received indeed, but not accounted for; purchased, but not paid for? it was fair to conclude, that on thus finding themselves without a market for their overplus grain, they would certainly give up the cultivation of their farms and quit the island. Should this happen, Lieutenant-governor King would have to lament the necessity of a measure having been adopted which in effect promised to depopulate his government.

On the 10th and 11th of this month we had two very welcome arrivals from England, the Resolution and Salamander storeships. They were both freighted with stores and provisions for the colony; but immediately on their anchoring we were given to understand, that from meeting with uncommon bad weather between the Cape of Good Hope and Van Dieman's Land, the masters apprehended that their cargoes had sustained much damage.

The Resolution sailed in company with the Salamander (from whom she parted in a heavy gale of wind about the longitude of the islands Amsterdam and St. Paul's) on the 20th of March last; anchored on the 16th of April at the Isle of May, whence she sailed on the 20th; crossed the equator on the 3rd of May; anchored on the 25th of the same month in the harbour of Rio de Janeiro; left it on the 10th of June, and, after a very boisterous passage, made the southern extremity of New Holland on the 30th of August, having been ninety-three days in her passage from the Brazils, during which time she endured several hard gales of wind, three of which the master, Mr. Matthew Lock, reported to have been as severe as any man on board his ship had ever witnessed. He stated, in the protest which he entered before the judge-advocate, that his ship was very much strained, the main piece of the rudder sprung, and most of the sails and rigging worn out. The Salamander appeared to have met with weather equally bad; but she was at one time in greater hazard, having broached-to in a tremendous gale of wind; during which time, according to the tale of the superstitious seamen, and which they took care to insert in their protest, blue lights were seen dancing on each masthead and yard in the ship.

By these ships we learned that the Surprise transport, with male and female convicts for this country, was left by them lying at Spithead ready for sea, and that they might be shortly expected. The Kitty, which sailed from this place in June 1793, had arrived safely at Cork on the 5th of February last, not losing any of her passengers or people in so long a voyage and in such a season.

His Majesty's appointment of John Hunter esq to be our governor, in the room of Captain Phillip who had resigned his office, we found had been officially notified in the London Gazette of the 5th of February last. Mr. Phillip's services, we understood, were remunerated by a pension of five hundred pounds per annum.

The Irish prisoners were now again beginning to be troublesome; and some of them being missing from labour, it was directly rumoured that a plan was in agitation to seize the boat named the Cumberland, which had recently sailed with provisions for the settlers at the Hawkesbury. By several it was said, that she had actually been attacked without the Heads, and carried. Notice was therefore immediately sent overland to the river, to put the people in the boat on their guard, and to return should she reach that settlement safely: an armed long-boat was also sent to protect her passage round. After a few days suspense we found, that while providing against any accident happening to the Cumberland, some of the Irish prisoners at Parramatta had stolen from the wharf at that place a six-oar'd boat belonging to Lieutenant Macarthur, with which they got without the harbour undiscovered. She was found however, some days after, at Botany Bay. The people who were in her made some threats of resistance, but at length took to the woods, leaving the boat with nearly every thing that they had provided for their voyage. From the woods they visited the farms about Sydney for plunder, or rather for sustenance; but one of them being fired at and wounded, the rest thought it their wisest way to give themselves up. They made no hesitation in avowing that they never meant to return; but at the same time owned that they supposed they had reached Broken Bay instead of Botany Bay, ignorant whether it lay to the northward or southward of this harbour. The man who had been wounded died at the hospital the next day; and his companions appeared but very ill able to provide for themselves, even by those means which had occasioned our being troubled with them in this country.

On the 17th, we were visited by a violent gale of wind at southwest, which blew so strong, that the Resolution was at one time nearly on shore. At Parramatta, during the gale, a public granary, in which were upwards of two thousand four hundred bushels of shelled maize or Indian corn, caught fire, through the carelessness of some servants who were boiling food for stock close to the building (which was a thatched one), and all the corn, together with a number of fine hogs the property of an individual, were destroyed.

Some severe contests among the natives took place during this month in and about the town of Sydney. In fact, we still knew very little of the manners and customs of these people, notwithstanding the advantage we possessed in the constant residence of many of them among us, and the desire that they showed of cultivating our friendship. At the Hawkesbury they were not so friendly; a settler there and his servant were nearly murdered in their hut by some natives from the woods, who stole upon them with such secrecy, as to wound and overpower them before they could procure assistance. The servant was so much hurt by them with spears and clubs, as to be in danger of losing his life. A few days after this circumstance, a body of natives having attacked the settlers, and carried off their clothes, provisions, and whatever else they could lay their hands on, the sufferers collected what arms they could, and following, them, seven or eight of the plunderers were killed on the spot.

This mode of treating them had become absolutely necessary, from the frequency and evil effects of their visits; but whatever the settlers at the river suffered was entirely brought on them by their own misconduct: there was not a doubt but many natives had been wantonly fired upon; and when their children, after the flight of the parents, have fallen into the settlers hands, they have been detained at their huts, notwithstanding the earnest entreaties of the parents for their return.

On the 26th, the Daedalus sailed for Norfolk Island, having on board a quantity of the stores and provisions lately received from England, and a detachment of officers and men of the New South Wales corps to relieve those on duty there.

Two female natives, wishing to withdraw from the cruelty which they, with others of their sex, experienced from their countrymen, were allowed to embark in the Daedalus, and were consigned to the care of the lieutenant-governor. One of them was sister to Bennillong; the other was connected with the young man his companion. Perhaps they wished to wait in peace and retirement the arrival of those who were bound to protect them.

At the latter end of the month some warrants of emancipation passed the seal of the territory, and received the lieutenant-governor's signature. The objects of this indulgence were, Robert Sidaway, who received an unconditional pardon in consideration of his diligence, unremitting good conduct, and strict integrity in his employment for several years as the public baker of the settlement; and William Leach, who was permitted to quit this country, but not to return to England during the unexpired term of his sentence of transportation, which was for seven years. Eight convicts were pardoned on condition of their serving in the New South Wales corps until regularly discharged therefrom. James Larra, James Ruffler, and Richard Partridge (convicts for life), received a conditional pardon, or (as was the term among themselves on this occasion) were made free on the ground, to enable them to become settlers; as were also William Joyce and Benjamin Carver for the same purpose. Joyce had been transported for fourteen years, and Carver for life. Freedom on the ground was also given to William Waring, a convict for life.

It was pleasing to see so many people withdrawing from the society of vice and wretchedness, and forming such a character for themselves as to be thought deserving of emancipation.

On the 29th, the Fancy snow left this port. Mr. Dell, the commander, purposed running to Norfolk Island, but affected a secrecy with respect to his subsequent destination. It was generally surmised, however, that he was bound to some island whereat timber fit for naval purposes was to be procured; and at which whatever ship Mr. Bampton should bring with him might touch and load with a cargo for India. The snow was armed, was about one hundred and seventy tons burden, had a large and expensive complement of officers and men, a guard of sepoys, and a commission from the Bombay marine*. New Zealand was by us supposed to be the place; as force, or at least the appearance of it, was there absolutely requisite.

[* Mr. Dell had likewise on board a much greater number of cross-cut saws than were necessary to procure wood for the mere use of the vessel.]

The wife of Griffin the drummer, whose hoarded guineas were supposed to have been stolen by Charles, or (as he was more commonly named) Pat Gray, killed herself with drinking, expiring in a fit of intoxication while the husband was employed in the lower part of the harbour in fishing for his family. She left him four children to provide for.

October.] This month opened with an indispensable act of justice: John Bevan, a wretched convict, whose name has been frequently mentioned in this narrative, broke into the house of William Fielder at Sydney, and being caught in the fact, it was substantiated against him beyond the chance of escape; he was of course fully convicted, and received sentence of death. The trial was on the 1st, and at nine in the morning of the 6th he was executed. At the tree he confessed nothing, but seemed terrified when he found himself so near the ignominious death that he had so long merited. On being taken to hear divine service the Sunday preceding his execution, he seemed not to be in the smallest degree affected by the clergyman's discourse, which was composed for the occasion; but was visibly touched at the singing of the psalm intitled the 'Lamentation of a Sinner.'

On the evening preceding the day of his execution, information was received from Parramatta, that Simon Burn, a settler, had been stabbed to the heart about eight o'clock in the evening before, of which wound he died in an hour. The man who perpetrated this atrocious act was a convict named Hill, a butcher by trade. It appeared on the trial, which lasted five hours, that Hill had borne the deceased much animosity for some time, and, having been all the day (which, to aggravate the offence, happened to be Sunday) in company drinking with him, took occasion to quarrel with a woman with whom he cohabited, and following her into an empty house, whither she had run to avoid a beating, the deceased, unhappily for him, interfered, and was by Hill stabbed to the heart; living, as has been said, about an hour, but having just strength enough to declare in the presence of several witnesses, that the butcher had killed him. The prisoner attempted to set up an alibi for his defence; but the fact of killing was incontrovertibly fixed upon him, as well as the malice which urged his hand to take away the life of his fellow-creature, and to send him, with the sin upon his head of having profaned the Lord's day by rioting and drunkenness, unprepared before his Maker.

This poor man was buried by his widow (an Irish woman) in a corner of his own farm, attended by several settlers of that and the neighbouring districts, who celebrated the funeral rites in a manner and with orgies suitable to the disposition and habits of the deceased, his widow, and themselves.

Hill was executed on the 16th, and his body dissected according to his sentence.

On the 17th the Mercury, an American brig, commanded by Mr. William Barnet, anchored in the cove from Falkland's islands. He had nothing on board for sale, but brought us the very welcome information of his having seen the officers of the Spanish ship Descuvierta at that place. Being in want of biscuit, he made application to the commodore Malaspina for a supply, proffering to settle the payment in any manner that he should choose to adopt; but the commodore, after sending him a greater quantity than he had required, assured him that he was sufficiently satisfied in having assisted a ship whose people, whether English or American, spoke the language of those gentlemen from whom himself and the officers of the ships under his command had received, while in New South Wales, such attention and hospitality. Mr. Barnet understood the Atrevida was in the neighbourhood, and that no loss or accident had happened in either ship since their departure from Port Jackson. The Mercury was bound to the north-west coast of America, and her master purposed quitting this port as soon as his people, who were all afflicted with that dreadful sea distemper the scurvy, should be sufficiently recovered.

The period of probation which had been allotted by the late governor to the services of William Stephenson (one of the people serving in the stores) expiring this month, his pardon was delivered to him accordingly. No one among the prisoners could be found more deserving of this clemency; his conduct had been uniformly that of a good man, and he had shown that he was trustworthy by never having forfeited the good opinion of the commissary under whom he was placed in the provision-store.

From the Hawkesbury were received accounts which corroborated the opinion that the settlers there merited the attacks which were from time to time made upon them by the natives. It was now said, that some of them had seized a native boy, and, after tying him hand and foot, had dragged him several times through a fire, or over a place covered with hot ashes, until his back was dreadfully scorched, and in that state threw him into the river, where they shot at and killed him. Such a report could not be heard without being followed by the closest examination, when it appeared that a boy had actually been shot when in the water, from a conviction of his having been detached as a spy upon the settlers from a large body of natives, and that he was returning to them with an account of their weakness, there being only one musket to be found among several farms. No person appearing to contradict this account, it was admitted as a truth; but many still considered it as a tale invented to cover the true circumstance, that a boy had been cruelly and wantonly murdered by them.

The presence of some person with authority was becoming absolutely necessary among those settlers, who, finding themselves freed from bondage, instantly conceived that they were above all restrictions; and, being without any internal regulations, irregularities of the worst kind might be expected to happen.

On the morning of the 25th a civil court was assembled, for the purpose of investigating an action brought by one Joyce (a convict lately emancipated) against Thomas Daveny, a free man and superintendant of convicts at Toongabbie, for an assault; when the defendant, availing himself of a mistake in his christian name, pleaded the misnomer. His plea being admitted, the business was for that time got over, and before another court could be assembled he had entered into a compromise with the plaintiff, and nothing more was heard of it.

In the evening of the same day the Surprise transport arrived from England, whence she sailed on the 2nd of last May, having on board sixty female and twenty-three male convicts, some stores and provisions, and three settlers for this colony.

Among the prisoners were, Messrs. Muir, Palmer, Skirving, and Margarot, four gentlemen lately convicted in Scotland of the crime of sedition, considered as a public offence, and transported for the same to this country.

We found also on board the Surprise a Mr. James Thompson, late surgeon of the Atlantic transport, but who now came in quality of assistant-surgeon to the settlement; and William Baker, formerly here a sergeant in the marine detachment, but now appointed a superintendant of convicts.

A guard of an ensign and twenty-one privates of the New South Wales corps were on board the transport. Six of these people were deserters from other regiments brought from the Savoy; one of them, Joseph Draper, we understood had been tried for mutiny (of an aggravated kind) at Quebec.

This mode of recruiting the regiment must have proved as disgusting to the officers as it was detrimental to the interests of the settlement. If the corps was raised for the purpose of protecting the civil establishment, and of bringing a counterpoise to the vices and crimes which might naturally be expected to exist among the convicts, it ought to have been carefully formed from the best characters; instead of which we now found a mutineer (a wretch who could deliberate with others, and consent himself to be the chosen instrument of the destruction of his sovereign's son) sent among us, to remain for life, perhaps, as a check upon sedition, now added to the catalogue of our other imported vices.