A Source Book of Australian History Part 10

You will see by my letters to Lord Sydney that this colony must for some years depend on supplies from England.

The _Sirius_ will be sent to the northward for live stock as soon as we can spare her carpenters; and from what Monsieur la Perouse said to Captain Hunter, one of the Isles des Navigateurs is the most likely to furnish us with what we want. But though these Islands supply two or three ships very abundantly, they will afford but very little towards the support of this colony, the situation of which I have particularly pointed out in my letter to Lord Sydney, and which I shall recapitulate in this, as the ship by which I now write may arrive before either of those that have my despatches on board.

The Lieutenant-Governor has about four acres of land in cultivation. I have from eight to ten in wheat and barley. The officers will be able to raise sufficient to support the little live stock they have, and which is all that can be expected from them. All the corn raised this year and the next will be saved for seed, and if necessity should oblige us to use it, it would be only a few days' support for the colony; and from the rats and other vermin the crops are very uncertain.

This country is subject to very heavy storms of thunder and lightning, several trees having been set on fire, and some sheep and dogs killed in the camp since we landed.

All the provisions we have to depend on until supplies arrive from England are in two wooden buildings which are thatched. I am sensible of the risk but have no remedy.

The greatest part of the stock brought from the Cape is dead, and from the inattention of the men who had the care of the cattle, those belonging to Government and two cows belonging to myself are lost. As they have been missing three weeks, it is probable they are killed by the natives. All my sheep are dead and a few only remain of those purchased for Government. The loss of two cows and four bulls falls very heavy. The horses do very well.

With respect to any resources that the Cape of Good Hope might afford, I have only to observe that the strong westerly winds that prevailed all the year between the Cape and the southern extremity of this country would render a pa.s.sage to the Cape very tedious if attempted to the southward, and little less so if ships go to the northward. Batavia and our own settlements are at a great distance; and when the transports are sailed I shall have only the _Sirius_ to employ on a service of this kind; and as I should not think myself at liberty to send either to the Cape or the East Indies unless in a case of the greatest necessity, it would in all probability then be too late. I mention these circ.u.mstances just to show the real situation of the colony, and I make no doubt but that supplies will arrive in time, and on which alone I depend. The provisions sent to support this colony for two years being put on board three ships, was running a very great risk, for had they separated and afterwards been lost the consequence is obvious, for this country at present does not furnish the smallest resource except in fish, and which has lately been so scarce that the natives find great difficulty in supporting themselves. Any accident of this kind will be guarded against, of course; and soldiers or convicts when sent out will be put on board the ships with provisions to serve them for two years after they land; and in our present situation I hope few convicts will be sent out for one year at least, except carpenters, masons, and bricklayers, or farmers, who can support themselves and a.s.sist in supporting others.

Numbers of those now here are a burthen and incapable of any kind of hard labour, and, unfortunately, we have not proper people to keep those to their labour who are capable of being made useful.

Officers decline the least interference with the convicts, unless when they are immediately employed for their (the officers) own conveniency or when they are called out at the head of their men; the saying of a few words to encourage the diligent when they saw them at work, and the pointing out the idle when they could do it without going out of their way, was all that was desired. The convicts were then employed in clearing the ground on which the officers were encamped, and this they refused; they did not suppose they were sent out to do more than garrison duty, and these gentlemen (that is, the majority of the officers) think the being obliged to sit as members of the Criminal Court an hardship, and for which they are not paid, and likely think themselves hardly dealt by, in that Government had not determined what lands were to be given to them. But I presume an additional force will be sent out when the necessity of making detachments in order to cultivate lands in the more open country is known, and from four to six hundred men, will, I think, be absolutely necessary.

If fifty farmers were sent out with their families they would do more in one year in rendering this colony independent of the mother country _as to provisions_ than a thousand convicts. There is some clear land which is intended to be cultivated, at some distance from the camp, and I intended to send out convicts for that purpose, under the direction of a person that was going to India in the _Charlotte_, transport, but who remained to settle in this country, and has been brought up a farmer, but several of the convicts (three) have been lately killed by the natives, and I have been obliged to defer it until a detachment can be made.

The natives are far more numerous than they were supposed to be. I think they cannot be less than fifteen hundred in Botany Bay, Port Jackson, and Broken Bay, including the intermediate coast. I have traced thirty miles inland, and the having lately seen smoke on Lansdown Hills, which are fifty miles inland, I think leaves no doubt but there are inhabitants in the interior parts of the country.

Lists of what articles are most wanted will be sent by the Commissary, and I am very sorry to say that not only a great part of the clothing, particularly the women's, is very bad, but most of the axes, spades, and shovels the worst that ever were seen. The provision is as good. Of the seeds and corn sent from England part has been destroyed by the weevil; the rest is in very good order.

The person I have appointed Provost-Marshal is likewise very useful in superintending the carpentry; the person sent out by the contractor, who a.s.sists the Commissary in the delivery of provisions, one that was clerk of the _Sirius_, a master smith, and two farmers, are very useful people, and I beg leave to recommend them to Government. The granting them lands would draw their attention from their present occupations.

A convict who fled to the woods after committing a robbery returned after being absent eighteen days, forced in by hunger; he had got some small support from the people, and the few fish left by accident on the beach after hauling the seine, and had endeavoured to live amongst the natives, but they could but give him but little a.s.sistance; he says they are now greatly distressed for food, and that he saw several dying with hunger. It is possible that some of the natives at this time of year might find it easier to support themselves on birds and such animals as shelter themselves in the hollow trees, than on fish; but then, I think, they would not go to the top of the mountains, where at present it must be very cold. I intend going to Lansdown or Carmarthen Hills as soon as the weather permits, if it is possible, and which will explain what is at present a mystery to me--how people who have not the least idea of cultivation can maintain themselves in the interior part of this country. When I went to the westward, in hopes of being able to reach the mountains, we carried six days' provisions, and proceeded five days to the westward; returning we were very short of provisions, and our guns only procured us two scanty meals.

I shall conclude with saying that I have no doubt but that the country will hereafter prove a most valuable acquisition to Great Britain, though at present no country can afford less support to the first settlers, or be more disadvantageously placed for receiving support from the mother country, on which it must for a time depend. It will require patience and perseverance, neither of which will, I hope, be wanting on the part of

Dear Sir, Yours, etc.

A. PHILLIP.

PHILLIP'S RESIGNATION

After four years of strenuous labour Phillip was forced to leave the work he had so well begun.

GOVERNOR PHILLIP TO LORD GRENVILLE

Sydney, _21st November, 1791._ My Lord,

I am honoured with your Lordship's letter of the 19th of February in answer to mine to Lord Sydney, and beg leave to a.s.sure your Lordship that I should not hesitate a moment in giving up my private affairs to the public service; but from a complaint which so very frequently puts it out of my power to use that exercise which my situation requires and the present state of this colony, in which I believe every doubt respecting its future independency as to the necessaries of life is fully done away, I am induced to request permission to resign the Government, that I may return to England in hopes of finding that relief which this country does not afford.

I have, etc.

A. PHILLIP.

NEW SOUTH WALES CORPS

+Source.+--Historical Records of Australia. Vol. I, p. 122; Vol. II, pp.

573-576

The New South Wales Corps was a body of soldiers forcibly recruited to guard the convicts at Port Jackson. The soldiers quickly pa.s.sed from bullying the convicts to bullying the free population, and a.s.sumed a high-handed att.i.tude towards the Governor himself.

THE RIGHT HON. W.W. GRENVILLE TO GOVERNOR PHILLIP Whitehall, _19th June 1789._ Sir,

The discontents which have prevailed in the marine detachment, and the desire expressed by most of the officers and men to return home as soon as they shall have performed the tour of duty they had undertaken, have led to the making arrangements for relieving them. With that view His Majesty has ordered a corps to be raised for that particular service, consisting of three hundred rank and file and a suitable number of officers under a Major-Commandant. This corps is ordered to be in readiness for embarkation on the 1st of October next, and will, it is expected, soon after that time proceed upon the voyage.

GRENVILLE TO PHILLIP

_Dec. 24th, 1789._

The corps which I before informed you was to be raised to serve within your Government, instead of the marines now doing duty there, has been complete for some time past. A detachment from it, consisting of about 100 officers and men, has been put on board the convict ships for their greater security against attempts which the convicts might meditate, and the remainder, under the command of Major Grose, amounting as you will see by the enclosed establishment to upwards of 200 more, will, I expect, embark at Portsmouth on board His Majesty's ship the _Gorgon_, in the course of a few days.

GOVERNOR HUNTER TO THE DUKE OF PORTLAND

Sydney, New South Wales, _10th Aug., 1796._

My Lord,

Having occasion in my letter, No. 9. by the ship _Marquis Cornwallis_, to notice very particularly a paragraph in your Grace's letter of the 10th of June, 1795, which related to the conduct of the military serving upon Norfolk Island in 1794, and which gave me occasion to mention similar outrage having been committed by the soldiers here since my arrival, I signified in that letter that I thought it might be improper in me to suppress or keep from your Grace's knowledge that outrage, and that it should be communicated at a future opportunity. I therefore enclose for your Grace's information a paper, No. 1, containing the particulars, stated in as brief a manner as possible. I forbear, my Lord, to make any observations upon this violent and extraordinary conduct on the part of the soldiers. I transmit only a statement of the facts, leaving your Grace wholly uninfluenced by anything I might have occasion to remark upon so daring a violation of the peace and order of the settlement, as well as in defiance of those laws by which that peace is to be preserved.

But as an alteration in the ration had at that time been ordered, I think it necessary to observe that their temper at the moment was so violent that they positively refused to take it unless they were served all flour, instead of part flour and part corn, a desire which could not be complied with without manifest injustice to others, and also insisted upon being paid short-allowance money for the time they were on short ration, which they say Governor Phillip had promised them. This last demand I must request your Grace's instructions upon.

The paper No. 2 is the Public Order which I gave out immediately after the outrage; No. 3 is a copy of my letter to the commanding officer of the corps upon that occasion; and No. 4 is a paper which was intended to quiet the minds of the inhabitants of the settlement, who might naturally (if no steps were taken to punish the offenders in this case, nor any particular notice be taken of the offence committed by them) conceive themselves subject to such violence and oppression from the military whenever any soldier might think fit to take offence at them.

These papers are all which I think it necessary to trouble your Grace with upon this occasion, as the facts will best speak for themselves, and prevent the possibility of a conjecture that any unfair representation could have been intended.

I should feel myself deficient in that duty which I owe to His Majesty's service in this part of the world were I not to take a liberty which I have no reason to believe your Grace will be offended at--I mean, in remarking that the manner in which this corps has, since employed upon this service, been recruited, does in a great measure weaken the effect or service which we would expect to derive from the a.s.sistance of the military. Soldiers from the Savoy, and other characters who have been considered as disgraceful to every other regiment in His Majesty's service, have been thought fit and proper recruits for the New South Wales Corps, which, in my humble opinion, my Lord, should have been composed of the very best and most orderly dispositions. They are sent here to guard and keep in obedience to the laws when force may be requisite, a set of the worst, the most atrocious characters that ever disgraced human nature; and yet we find amongst those safeguards men capable of corrupting the heart of the best disposed, and often superior in every species of infamy to the most expert in wickedness amongst the convicts. Our stores, provisions, and granaries must be intrusted to the care of these men; what security can we have in the hands of such people? None, my Lord. Your Grace will see the impropriety of such recruits being sent to this country, and mixed with a corps who have the care of our most valuable concerns. Not to detain your Grace, I will beg permission to observe that a corps of military to be permanently established for the service of this colony, to which the dregs and refuse of our native country are directed by its laws to be sent as a punishment, cannot be attended with that advantage which may have been expected from it.

This, I confess, my Lord, to be my opinion, and for this reason, that they will make connections with infamous characters here, whatever attention may be paid by their officers to prevent it; by this means they will in time be corrupted and rendered unfit people for the trust which we must repose in them. It might probably be thought expensive to relieve them as other garrisons, once in three, four, or five years; but I cannot help believing, my Lord, that the service would be much benefited by such a measure; and two forty-four-gun ships armed _en flute_ sailing at a proper season would complete the relief, and return in from twelve to fourteen months, frequently less. The expense attending this measure will probably be an objection; but, my Lord, although the saving to be made by it may appear too remote to merit immediate notice, yet I am convinced it would ultimately prove a saving, and no inconsiderable one.

I have, etc., JNO. HUNTER.

(Enclosure No. 1)

STATEMENT OF THE CASE OF JOHN BAUGHAN

John Baughan who officiates as foreman of the carpenters working at Sydney, and a private soldier of the New South Wales Corps, of the same profession, had some dispute when formerly working together on an occasion when Baughan had the direction. This dispute, it appeared, had not subsided in the mind of the soldier, and probably was not wholly forgot by the other. It, however, was more conspicuous in the soldier, from the following circ.u.mstance:--One day when sentinel over a storehouse, knowing that Baughan was at work in a house some distance from his post, he set his arms down against the wall of the store, and seeing a man whom he knew, standing on the outside of the building in which Baughan was at work, entered into a conversation with him, of which Baughan was the subject, and in which much abuse was bestowed which it was meant that he, Baughan, should hear. Baughan went out at the back door unperceived, and seeing the soldier without his arms, went to his post, where he found the musquet, which he took up and carried to the guardhouse and delivered to the sergeant of the guard. The soldier was, of course, taken notice of and relieved, being without his arms.

The next day, 5th February, at half-past nine o'clock in the forenoon the whole of the corps off duty at this place a.s.sembled, and in the most public and tumultuous manner proceeded to the dwelling of John Baughan, broke open his gates, doors and windows, entered his house, chopped the corner-posts of it, broke his bedsteads and bedding, chairs, window-frames, drawers, chests, and, in short, completely demolished everything within his possession to a considerable amount, for the man had by great labour and industry built himself a neat house and had it well furnished.

Upon their first approach, having had a few minutes' notice, he armed himself with a loaded gun and defended himself by threats for some time, but their numbers were so many that they surrounded his paling which enclosed the house, which some tore down, and entered on the opposite side to that which he endeavoured to defend, came behind him, secured and threw him down with his face to the ground, whilst one held an axe over his neck, and swore if he offered to stir, he would chop the head from his body. During the time he remained in this situation they completed the ruin of his whole property, to the very great terror of the man's wife, after which they went off cheering, as if something meritorious had been effected, and marched in a body across the parade before their commanding officer's house.

After so daring an attack in the open day, upon the dwelling-house of an inhabitant, and in direct defiance of all law, civil or military, they could only be considered as in a state of mutiny. I immediately issued in Public Orders the papers No. 2.