An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales Volume I Part 18

Their provisions, like ours, were again at so low an ebb, that the lieutenant-governor had reduced the ration. The whole number victualled when the _Supply_ sailed amounted to six hundred and twenty-nine persons; and for that number there were in store at the _full_ ration, flour and Indian corn for twenty weeks, beef for eighteen weeks, and pork for twenty-nine weeks; and these, at the ration then issued, would be prolonged, the grain to twenty-seven, the beef to forty-two, and the pork to twenty-nine weeks.

It must however be remarked, that the ration at Norfolk Island was often uncertain, being regulated by the plenty or scarcity of the Mount Pitt birds. Great numbers of these birds had been killed for some time before the _Supply_ sailed thence; but they were observed about that time to be quitting the island.

On board the _Supply_ were some planks, and such part of the stores belonging to the _Sirius_ as the lieutenant-governor could get on board.

That ship had not then gone to pieces; the side of her which was on the reef was broken in and much injured, but the side next the sea (the larboard side) appeared fresh and perfect.

At Sydney, by an account taken at the latter end of the month of the provisions then remaining in store, there appeared to be at the ration then issued of

Flour and rice 40 weeks, a supply till 31st March 1792; Beef 12 weeks, a supply till 31st August 1791; Pork 27 weeks, a supply till 21st December 1791.

In this account the rice and flour were taken together as one article, but the rice bore by far the greatest proportion.

It was remarked by many in the settlement, that both at Sydney and at Rose Hill the countenances of the labouring convicts indicated the shortness of the ration they received; this might be occasioned by their having suffered so much before from the same cause, from the effects of which they had scarcely been restored when they were again called upon to experience the hardship of a reduced ration of provisions. The convicts who arrived in June had not recovered from the severity of their pa.s.sage to this country.

It having been said that James Ruse, who in March last had declared his ability to support himself independent of the store, was starving, the governor told him, that in consideration of his having been upon a short allowance of provisions during nearly the whole of the time he had been cultivating ground upon his own account, the storekeeper should be directed to supply him with twenty pounds of salt provisions. The man a.s.sured his excellency that he did not stand in need of his bounty, having by him at the time a small stock of provisions; a quant.i.ty of Indian corn (which he found no difficulty in exchanging for salt meat) and a bag of flour; all which enabled him to do so well, that he absolutely begged permission to _decline_ the offer. So very contradictory was his own account of his situation to that which had been reported.

The barracks at Rose Hill, being so far completed as to admit of being occupied, were taken possession of this month by the New South Wales corps.

Several thefts of provisions were committed; two, that were of some consequence, appeared as if the provisions had been collected for some particular purpose; and, if so, perhaps only pa.s.sed from the possession of one thief to that of another. While a stalk of Indian corn remained upon the ground, the convicts resolved to plunder it, and several were severely punished; but it did not appear that they were amended by the correction, nor that others were deterred by the example of their punishment. So truly incorrigible were many of these people!

Finishing the clergyman's and surveyor's houses; bringing in bricks for other buildings; posts and paling for a fence round the run of water; and making clothing for the people, occupied the convicts at Sydney.

June.] The bad weather met with by the _Supply_ during her late voyage to Norfolk Island had done her so much injury, that, on a careful examination of her defects, it appeared that she could not be got ready for sea in less than three months. In addition to other repairs which were indispensable, her main mast was found so defective, that after cutting off eighteen feet from the head of it and finding the heel nearly as bad, the carpenter was of opinion that she must be furnished with an entire new mast. This, when the difficulty of finding timber for her foremast (which, it must be remarked, bore the heavy gales of wind she met with, as well as could be desired even of wood the fittest for masts) was recollected, was an unlucky and an ill-timed want; for, should it happen that supplies were not received from England by the middle or end of the month of July, the services of this vessel would be again required; and, to save the colony, she must at that time have been dispatched to some settlement in India for provisions. She was therefore forthwith hauled along side the rocks, and people were employed to look for sound timber fit for a mast.

On his Majesty's birthday an extra allowance of provisions was issued to the garrison and settlements; each man receiving one pound of salt meat, and the like quant.i.ty of rice; each woman half a pound of meat and one pound of rice; and each child a quarter of a pound of meat and half a pound of rice. And to make it a cheerful day to every one, all offenders who had for stealing Indian corn been ordered to wear iron collars were pardoned.

The town which had been marked out at Rose Hill, and which now wore something of a regular appearance, on this occasion received its name.

The governor called it Parramatta, being the name by which the natives distinguished the part of the country on which the town stood.

Notwithstanding the lenity and indulgence which had been shown on his Majesty's birthday, in pardoning the plunderers of gardens and the public grounds, and by issuing an extra allowance of provisions to every one, the governor's garden at Parramatta was that very night entered and robbed by six men, who a.s.saulted the watchman, Thomas Ocraft, and would have escaped all together, had he not, with much resolution, secured three of them for punishment.

Indulgences of this nature were certainly thrown away upon many who partook of them; but as it was impossible to discriminate so nicely between the good and the bad as wholly to exclude the undeserving, no distinction could be made.

The people who had a.s.saulted the watchman were severely punished, as his authority could never have been supported without such an example; but either his vigilance, or the countenance which was shown to him on account of his strict performance of his duty, created him many enemies; and it became necessary to give him arms, as well for his own defence, as for the more effectual protection of the district he watched over. Some nights after, in a turnip ground at Parramatta, he was obliged to fire at a convict, whom he wounded, but not dangerously, and secured. He was sent down to the hospital at Sydney.

Since the establishment of that familiar intercourse which now subsisted between us and the natives, several of them had found it their interest to sell or exchange fish among the people at Parramatta; they being contented to receive a small quant.i.ty of either bread or salt meat in barter for mullet, bream, and other fish. To the officers who resided there this proved a great convenience, and they encouraged the natives to visit them as often as they could bring them fish. There were, however, among the convicts some who were so unthinking, or so depraved, as wantonly to destroy a canoe belonging to a fine young man, a native, who had left it at some little distance from the settlement, and as he hoped out of the way of observation, while he went with some fish to the huts.

His rage at finding his canoe destroyed was inconceivable; and he threatened to take his own revenge, and in his own way, upon all white people. Three of the six people who had done him the injury, however, were so well described by some one who had seen them, that, being closely followed, they were taken and punished, as were the remainder in a few days after.

The instant effect of all this was, that the natives discontinued to bring up fish; and Bal-loo-der-ry, whose canoe had been destroyed, although he had been taught to believe that one of the six convicts had been hanged for the offence, meeting a few days afterwards with a poor wretch who had strayed from Parramatta as far as the Flats, he wounded him in two places with a spear. This act of Ballooderry's was followed by the governor's strictly forbidding him to appear again at any of the settlements; the other natives, his friends, being alarmed, Parramatta was seldom visited by any of them, and all commerce with them was destroyed. How much greater claim to the appellation of savages had the wretches who were the cause of this, than the native who was the sufferer?

During this month some rain had fallen, which had encouraged the sowing of the public grounds, and one hundred and sixteen bushels of wheat were sown at Parramatta. Until these rains fell, the ground was so dry, hard, and literally burnt up, that it was almost impossible to break it with a hoe, and until this time there had been no hope or probability of the grain vegetating.

In the beginning of the month, the stone-mason, with the people under his direction, had begun working at the west point of the cove, where the governor purposed constructing out of the rock a spot whereon to place the guns belonging to the settlement, which was to wear the appearance of a _work_. The flagstaff was to be placed in the same situation. The house for the princ.i.p.al surgeon was got up and covered in during this month.

Among the convicts who died about this time, was ---- Frazer, a man who came out in the first fleet, and who, since his landing, had been employed as a blacksmith. He was an excellent workman, and was supposed to have brought on an untimely end by hard drinking, as he seldom chose to accept of any article but spirits in payment for work done in his extra hours.

July.] To guard against a recurrence of the accident which happened to our cattle soon after we had arrived, the governor had for some time past employed a certain number of convicts at Parramatta in forming inclosures; and at the commencement of this month not less than one hundred and forty acres were thinned of the timber, surrounded by a ditch, and guarded by a proper fence.

In addition to the quant.i.ty of ground sown with wheat, a large proportion was cleared to be sown this season with Indian corn; and the country about Parramatta, as well as the town itself, where eight huts were now built, wore a very promising appearance.

At Sydney, the little ground that was in cultivation belonged to individuals; the whole labour of the convicts employed in clearing ground being exerted at Parramatta, where the soil, though not the best for the purposes of agriculture (according to the opinion of every man who professed any knowledge of farming) was still better than the sand about Sydney, where, to raise even a cabbage after the first crop, manure was absolutely requisite.

On the morning of the ninth, the signal for a sail was made at the South Head; and before night it was made known that the _Mary Ann_ transport was arrived from England, with one hundred and forty-one female convicts on board, six children, and one free woman, some clothing, and the following small quant.i.ty of provisions: one hundred and thirty-two barrels of flour; sixty-one tierces of pork; and thirty-two tierces of beef.

This ship sailed alone; but we were informed that she was to be followed by nine sail of transports, on board of which were embarked (including one hundred and fifty women, the number put into the _Mary Ann_) two thousand and fifty male and female convicts; the whole of which were to be expected in the course of six weeks or two months, together with his Majesty's ship _Gorgon_.

We also learned that Lieutenant King, who sailed hence the 17th April 1790, arrived in London the 20th day of December following, having suffered much distress after leaving Batavia, whence he was obliged to go to the Mauritius, having lost nearly all the crew of the packet he was in by sickness. Mr. Millar, the late commissary, died on the 28th of August.

With great satisfaction we heard, that from our government having adopted a system of sending out convicts at two embarkations in every year, at which time provisions were also to be sent, it was not probable that we should again experience the misery and want with which we had been but too well acquainted, from not having had any regular mode of supply.

Intimation was likewise given, that a cargo of grain might be expected to arrive from Bengal, some merchants at that settlement having proposed to Lord Cornwallis, on hearing of the loss of the _Guardian_, to freight a ship with such a cargo as would be adapted to the wants of the colony, and to supply the different articles at a cheaper rate than they could be sent hither from England. We were also to expect a transport with live stock from the north west coast of America.

The master, Mark Monroe, had not any private letters on board; but (what added to the disappointment every one experienced) he had not brought a single newspaper; and, having been but a few weeks from Greenland before he sailed for this country, he was dest.i.tute of any kind of information.

The _Mary Ann_ had a quick pa.s.sage, having been only four months and sixteen days from England. She touched nowhere, except at the island of St. Iago, where she remained ten days. The master landed a boat in a bay on this coast about fifteen miles to the southward of Botany Bay; but made no other observation of any consequence to the colony, than that there was a bay in which a boat might land.

The women, who were all very healthy, and who spoke highly of the treatment which they had experienced from Mr. Monroe, were landed immediately after the arrival of the transport in the cove, and were distributed among the huts at Sydney, while the governor went up to Parramatta to make such preparation as the time would admit for the numbers he expected to receive.

The convicts whose terms of transportation had expired were now collected, and by the authority of the governor informed, that such of them as wished to become settlers in this country should receive every encouragement; that those who did not, were to labour for their provisions, stipulating to work for twelve or eighteen months certain; and that in the way of such as preferred returning to England no obstacles would be thrown, provided they could procure pa.s.sages from the masters of such ships as might arrive; but that they were not to expect any a.s.sistance on the part of Government to that end. The wish to return to their friends appeared to be the prevailing idea, a few only giving in their names as settlers, and none engaging to work for a certain time.

We had twice in this month found occasion to a.s.semble the court of criminal judicature. In the night of Sat.u.r.day the 16th, a soldier of the marine detachment was detected by the patrols in the spirit cellar adjoining to the deputy-commissary's house, the lock of which he had forced. On being taken up, he offered, if he could be admitted an evidence, to convict two others; which being allowed, the court was a.s.sembled on the 19th, when two of his brother soldiers were tried; but for want of evidence sufficiently strong to corroborate the testimony of the accomplice, they were of necessity acquitted. G.o.dfrey the accomplice was afterwards tried by a military court for neglect of duty and disobedience of orders in quitting his post when sentinel; which offence being proved against him, he was sentenced to receive eight hundred lashes, and to be drummed out of the corps. In the evening of the day on which he was tried (the 21st) he received three hundred lashes, and was drummed out with every mark of disgrace that could be shown him. In a short time afterwards the two soldiers who had been acquitted were sent to do duty at the South Head. There was little room to doubt, but that in concert with G.o.dfrey they had availed themselves of their situations as sentinels, and frequently entered the cellar; and it was judged necessary to place them where they would be disabled from concerting any future scheme with him.

A convict was tried for a burglary by the same court, but was acquitted.

On the 27th another court was a.s.sembled for the trial of James Chapman, for a burglary committed in the preceding month in the house of John Petree, a convict, in which he stole several articles of wearing apparel.

Charles Cross and Joseph Hatton, two convicts, were also tried for receiving them knowing them to be stolen. Chapman the princ.i.p.al, refusing to plead any thing but guilty, received sentence of death. Against the receivers it appeared in evidence, that after the burglary was committed the property was concealed in the woods between Sydney and Parramatta, at which place all the parties resided; that having suffered it to remain some weeks, Chapman and Cross went from Parramatta to bring it away; and while they were so employed, Hatton found that the watchmen were going in pursuit of Chapman; on which he directly set off to meet and advertise them of it, and receive the property, which, by a clear chain of evidence, he was proved to have taken and concealed again in the woods.

Hatton was found guilty, and sentenced to receive eight hundred lashes.

Cross was acquitted. Chapman was executed the following day at noon. Half an hour before he died, he informed the judge-advocate and the clergyman who attended him, that a plan was formed of breaking into the government-house, and robbing it of a large sum of money which it was imagined the governor kept in it; and that it was to be executed by himself and three other convicts, all of whom were, however, very far from being of suspicious characters. But as there was no reason to suppose that a person in such an awful situation would invent an accusation by which he could not himself be benefited, and which might injure three innocent people, the governor took all the precautions that he thought necessary to guard against the meditated villainy.

A practice having been discovered, of purchasing the soldiers regimental necessaries for the purpose of disposing of them among the shipping, and this requiring a punishment that should effectually check it, Bond, a convict who baked for the hospital and others, was brought before two magistrates, and, being convicted of having bought several articles of wearing apparel which had been served to a soldier, was sentenced to pay the penalty prescribed by act of parliament, five pounds; or, on failure within a certain time, to go to prison. Having made some considerable profits in the exercise of his trade as a baker, he preferred paying the penalty.

It being always desirable to go as near the established ration as the state of the stores would allow, and the governor never wishing to keep the labouring man one moment longer than was absolutely necessary upon a reduced allowance of provisions, he directed two pounds of rice to be added to the weekly proportion of that article; but, although by this addition eight pounds of grain were issued, viz three pounds of flour and five pounds of rice, the ration was far from being brought up to the standard established by the Treasury for the colony; five pounds of bad worm-eaten rice making a most inadequate subst.i.tute for the same quant.i.ty of good flour. In the article of meat the labouring man suffered still more; for in a given quant.i.ty of sixty pounds, which were issued on one serving day to two messes, there were no less than forty pounds of bone, and the remainder, which was intended to be eaten, was almost too far advanced in putrefaction for even hunger to get down. It must be observed that it came in the snow from Batavia.

Patrick Burn, a person employed to shoot for the commanding officer of the marine detachment, died this month: and the hut that he had lived in was burnt down in the night a few hours after his decease, by the carelessness of the people, who were Irish and were sitting up with the corpse, which was with much difficulty saved from the flames, and not until it was much scorched.

August.] On Monday, the 1st of August, the _Matilda_, the first of the expected fleet of transports, arrived, after an extraordinary pa.s.sage of four months and five days, from Portsmouth; having sailed from thence on the 27th day of March last, with four sail of transports for this place, with whom she parted company that night off Dunnoze. Another division of transports had sailed a week before from Plymouth Sound. On board the _Matilda_ were two hundred and five male convicts, one ensign, one.

sergeant, one corporal, one drummer, and nineteen privates, of the New South Wales corps; and some stores and provisions calculated as a supply for the above number for nine months after their arrival.

The master of this ship anch.o.r.ed for two days in a bay of one of Schoeten's Islands, distant from the main land about twelve miles, in the lat.i.tude of 42 degrees 15 minutes S.: where, according to his report, five or six ships might find shelter. Those who were on sh.o.r.e saw the footsteps of different kinds of animals, and traces of natives, such as huts, fires, broken spears, and the instrument which they use for throwing the spear. They spoke of the soil as sandy, and observed that the ground was covered with shrubs such as were to be found here.

The convicts in this ship, on their landing, appeared to be aged and infirm, the state in which they were said to have been embarked. It was not therefore to be wondered at, that they had buried twenty-five on the pa.s.sage. One soldier also died. Twenty were brought in sick, and were immediately landed at the hospital.

It was intended by the governor that this ship should have proceeded immediately to Norfolk Island with the greater part of the convicts she had on board, together with all the stores and provisions; but the master, Mr. Matthew Weatherhead, requesting that as the ship was very leaky the _Mary Ann_ might be permitted to perform the service required, instead of the _Matilda_ (both ships belonging to the same owners), and the _Mary Ann_ being perfectly ready for sea, the governor consented to this proposal; and that ship was hauled alongside the _Matilda_ to receive her cargo. Fifty-five of the convicts brought in this ship, selected from the others as farmers or artificers, were sent up to Parramatta; of the remainder, those whose health would permit them to go were put on board the _Mary Ann_, together with thirty-two convicts of bad character from among those who came out in the preceding year, and eleven privates of the New South Wales corps. On the Monday following (the 8th) the _Mary Ann_ sailed for Norfolk Island.

At Parramatta the only accommodation which the shortness of the notice admitted of being provided for the people who were on their pa.s.sage was got up; two tent huts, one hundred feet long, thatched with gra.s.s, were erected; and, independent of the risk which the occupiers might run from fire, they would afford good and comfortable shelter from the weather.

The governor had now chosen situations for his settlers, and fixed them on their different allotments. Twelve convicts, whose terms of transportation had expired, he placed in a range of farms at the foot of a hill named Prospect Hill, about four miles west from Parramatta; fifteen others were placed on allotments in a district named the Ponds, from a range of fresh-water ponds being in their vicinity; these were situated two miles in a direction north-east of Parramatta. Between every allotment, a s.p.a.ce had been reserved equal to the largest grant on either side, pursuant to the instructions which the governor had received; but it was soon found that this distribution might be attended with much disadvantage to the settler; a thick wood of at least thirty acres must lie between every allotment; and a circ.u.mstance happened which showed the inconvenience consequent thereon, and determined the governor to deviate from the instructions, whenever, by adhering to them, the settlers were likely to be material sufferers.

In the beginning of the month information was received, that a much larger party of the natives than had yet been seen a.s.sembled at any one time had destroyed a hut belonging to a settler at Prospect Hill, who would have been murdered by them, but for the timely and accidental appearance of another settler with a musket. There was no doubt of the hut having been destroyed, and by natives, though perhaps their numbers were much exaggerated; the governor, therefore, determined to place other settlers upon the allotments which had been reserved for the crown; by which means a.s.sistance in similar or other accidents would be more ready.