An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales Volume I Part 21

CHAPTER XVI

The _Queen_ sails for Norfolk Island Whalers on their fishing voyages Convicts missing Various depredations Dispensary and bake-house robbed Proclamation A criminal court held Convict executed Transactions The _Pitt_ with Lieutenant-Governor Grose arrives Military duty fixed for Parramatta Goods selling at Sydney from the _Pitt_ The _Pitt_ ordered to be dispatched to Norfolk Island Commissions read Sickness The _Pitt_ sails Mr. Burton killed Stormy weather Public works Regulations respecting persons who had served their terms of transportation Natives

1792.]

January.] Early in this month sixty-two people, settlers and convicts, with Mr. Bayne, the chaplain of the New South Wales corps, who offered his services, as there never had been a clergyman there, embarked on board the _Queen_ transport for Norfolk Island, the master of that ship having engaged to carry them and a certain quant.i.ty of provisions thither for the sum of 150. Of the settlers twenty-two were lately discharged from the marine service, and the remainder were convicts; some of the latter, whose terms of transportation had expired, had chosen Norfolk Island to settle in, and others were sent to be employed for the public.

This ship, with the _Admiral Barrington_ for India, sailed on the 6th; and the _Salamander_ and _Britannia_ whalers on the 7th, the masters of the two latter ships signifying an intention of cruising for three months upon this coast; at the end of which time, according to their success, they would either return to this port, or pursue their voyage to the northward.

Several convicts attempted to escape from the settlement on board of these ships, some of whom were discovered before they sailed, and, being brought on sh.o.r.e, were punished; but there was great reason to suppose that others were secreted by the connivance of the seamen, and eluded the repeated searches which were made for them.

In addition to this exportation, the colony lost some useful people whom it could ill spare; but who, their terms of transportation having expired, would not be induced to remain in the settlement, and could not be prevented from quitting it.

By the commissary's report of the muster it appeared, that forty-four men and nine women were absent and unaccounted for; among which number were included those who were wandering in the woods, seeking for a new settlement, or endeavouring to get into the path to China! Of these people many, after lingering a long time, and existing merely on roots and wild berries, perished miserably. Others found their way in, after being absent several weeks, and reported the fate of their wretched companions, being themselves reduced to nearly the same condition, worn down and exhausted with fatigue and want of proper sustenance. Yet, although the appearance of these people confirmed their account of what they had undergone, others were still found ignorant and weak enough to run into the woods impressed with the idea of either reaching China by land, or finding a new settlement where labour would not be imposed on them, and where the inhabitants were civil and peaceable. Two of these wretches at the time of their absconding met a convict in their way not far from the new grounds, whom they robbed of his provisions, and beat in so cruel a manner that, after languishing for some time, he died in the hospital at Parramatta. He described their persons, and mentioned their names, with the precise circ.u.mstances attending their treatment of him, and it was hoped that they would have lived to return, and receive the reward of their crime; but one of their companions who survived them brought in an account of their having ended a wicked and miserable existence in the woods.

Depredations being nightly committed at the skirts of the town, and at the officers' farms, by some of these vagrants, who were supposed to lurk between this place and Parramatta, it was thought necessary to send armed parties out at night for a certain distance round the settlement, with orders to seize, or fire on, all persons found straggling; and several were detected by them in the act of robbing the gardens at the different farms. Indeed neither the property nor the persons of individuals were safe for some time. Two villains came to a hut which was occupied by one Williams a sawyer, and which he had erected at a spot at some distance from the town where he could have a little garden ground, and attempted to rob him; but the owner surprised them, and, in endeavouring to secure them, was wounded so severely in the arm with a tomahawk, that the tendon was divided; and it was supposed that he never would recover the perfect use of the limb. They even carried their audacity so far, as to be secretly meditating an attempt upon the barrack and storehouse at Parramatta; at least, information of such a plan was given by some of the convicts; and as there had been seen among them people silly enough to undertake to walk to the other side of this extensive continent, expecting that China would be found there, it was not at all improbable that some might be mad enough to persuade others that it would be an easy matter to attempt and carry the barracks and stores there. But no other use was made of the report than the exertion of double vigilance in the guards, which was done without making public the true motive. To the credit of the convicts who came out in the first fleet it must be remarked, that none of them were concerned in these offences; and of them it was said the new comers stood so much in dread, that they never were admitted to any share in their confidence.

As the Indian corn began to ripen the convicts recommenced their depredations, and many were punished with a severity seemingly calculated to deter others, but actually without effect. They appeared to be a people wholly regardless of the future, and not dreading any thing that was not immediately present to their own feelings. It was well known that punishment would follow the detection of a crime; but their constant reliance was on a hope of escaping that detection; and they were very rarely known to stand forward in bringing offenders to punishment, although such rewards were held out as one would imagine were sufficient to induce them. It being necessary to secure four dangerous people, who, after committing offences, had withdrawn into the woods, a reward of fifty pounds of flour was offered for the apprehension of either of them, but only one was taken.

The easy communication between Sydney and Parramatta had been found to be a very great evil from the time the path was first made; but since the numbers had been so much augmented at Parramatta, it became absolutely necessary to put a stop to the intercourse. The distance was about sixteen miles; and, unless information was previously given, a person would visit Sydney and return without being missed: and as stolen property was transferred from one place to another by means of this quick conveyance, orders were given calculated to cut off all unlicensed intercourse.

A report having been falsely propagated at Parramatta, that it was intended by the governor to take the corn of individuals on the public account, the settlers and convicts who had raised maize or other grain, and who were not provided with proper places to secure it in, were informed, that they might send it to the public store, and draw it from thence as their occasions required; and farther, that they were at liberty to dispose of such live stock, corn, grain, or vegetables, which they might raise, as they found convenient to themselves, the property of every individual being equally secured to him, and by the same law, whether belonging to a free man or a convict. Such of the above articles as they could not otherwise dispose of, they were told, would be purchased by the commissary on the public account at a fair market-price.

Toward the latter end of the month some villains broke into the dispensary at the hospital, and stole two cases of portable soup, one case of camomile flowers, and one case containing sudorific powder. These articles had been placed in the dispensary on the very evening it was broken into, to be sent to Parramatta the following morning. The cases with the camomile and sudorific powder (which perhaps they had taken for sugar or flour) were found at the back of the hill behind the hospital; and, in order to discover the persons concerned in this theft, as well as those who maimed the sawyer, as before related, a proclamation was published, offering to any person or persons giving such information as should convict the princ.i.p.al offenders, a free pardon for every offence which he, she, or they might have committed since their arrival in this country; and that a full ration of provisions should be issued to such person or persons during the remainder of their respective terms of transportation.

Several people died at Parramatta, some of whom were at labour, apparently in health, and dead in twenty-four hours. An extraordinary circ.u.mstance attended, though it was not the cause of the death of one poor creature: while dragging with others at a brick cart he was seized with a fainting fit, and when he recovered was laid down under a cart which stood in the road, that he might be in the shade. Being weak and ill, he fell asleep. On waking, and feeling something tight about his neck, he put up his hand, when, to his amazement and horror, he grasped the folds of a large snake which had twined itself round his neck. In endeavouring to disengage it, the animal bit him by the lip, which became instantly tumid. Two men, pa.s.sing by, took off the snake and threw it on the ground, when it erected itself and flew at one of them; but they soon killed it. The man who had fainted at the cart died the next morning, not, however, from any effect of the bite of the snake, but from a general debility.

At Parramatta the public bakehouse was broken into, and robbed of a large quant.i.ty of flour and biscuit. The robber had made his way down the chimney of the house, and, though a man and woman slept in the place, carried off his booty undiscovered.

The convicts having a.s.sembled there at the latter end of the last month in an improper and tumultuous manner, the governor now thought proper to issue a proclamation, directing that 'in case of any riot or disturbance among the convicts, every one who was seen out of his hut would (if such riot or disturbance should happen in the night, or during the hours of rest from labour, or if he were absent from his labour during the hours of work) be deemed to be aiding and a.s.sisting the rioters, and be punished accordingly.'

The convicts were strictly forbidden ever to a.s.semble in numbers under any pretence of stating a complaint, or for any other cause whatever, all complaints being to be made through the medium of the superintendants or overseers.

A disobedience to this proclamation was to be punished with the utmost severity; and any person who, knowing of any intended riot or tumultuous and unlawful a.s.sembly among the convicts, did not take the first opportunity of informing either the commanding officer of the military or one of the superintendants thereof, would be deemed and punished as a princ.i.p.al in such riot.

An instance of the profligacy of the convicts which occurred at this time is deserving of notice: a woman who had been entrusted to carry the allowance of flour belonging to two other women to the bakehouse, where she had run in debt for bread which she had taken up on their account, mixed with it a quant.i.ty of pounded stone, in the proportion of two-thirds of grit, to one of flour. Fortunately, she was detected before it had been mixed with other flour at the bakehouse, and was ordered to wear an iron collar for six months as a punishment.

February.] A criminal court was held at Parramatta on the 7th of this month for the trial of James Collington, who, as before mentioned, had broken into the public bakehouse at that place by getting down the chimney in the night. It appeared that he had taken off about fifty pounds of flour, which he tied up in an ap.r.o.n that he found in the room, and the leg of a pair of trousers. He deposited the property under a rock, and occasionally visited it; but it was soon seized by some other nocturnal adventurer, and Collington then broke into another hut, wherein eight people were sleeping, and took thereout a box containing wearing apparel and provisions, without disturbing them, so soundly did fatigue make them sleep; but he was detected in a garden with the property, and secured. Being found guilty, he received sentence of death, and was executed early the following morning. At the tree he addressed the convicts, warning them to avoid the paths he had pursued; but said, that he was induced by hunger to commit the crime for which he suffered. He appeared desirous of death, declaring that he knew he could not live without stealing.

Information having been received, that a great body of convicts at the new grounds intended to seize some arms which had been given to the settlers for their protection against the natives, and (after robbing their huts) to proceed to the sea-coast, where, destroying every person who should oppose them, they were to build a vessel, a convict who was said to be a ringleader was taken up, and, upon the information which he gave, five others were apprehended and chained together; in which situation they continued for some time, when their scheme having been defeated, and other steps taken to prevent their putting it in execution, they were liberated, and returned to their usual labour.

Information would have been at all times more readily procured from these people, had they not been constantly apprehensive of receiving ill-treatment not only from the parties concerned, but from others who were not; and although every a.s.surance of protection was given by those who were authorised to hold it out, yet it was not found sufficient to do away the dread they were said to labour under. Accident, or a quarrel among themselves, sometimes furnished information that was not otherwise to be procured; and in general to one or other of these causes was to be attributed every information that was received of any malpractices among them.

A person who had been employed under one of the superintendants at Parramatta, and in whom, from an uniformity of good conduct during his residence in this country, some trust was at times placed, was detected in giving corn to a settler from the public granary, to which he had occasional access. The offence being fully proved, he was sentenced to receive three hundred lashes, and the person to whom he had given the corn two hundred lashes. It was seen with great concern, that there were but few among them who were honest enough to resist any temptation that was placed in their way.

A convict who had absconded five weeks since was apprehended by some of the military at the head of one of the coves leading from Parramatta. He had built himself a hut in the woods, and said when brought in, that he had preserved his existence by eating such fish as he was fortunate enough to catch, rock oysters, and wild berries; and that the natives had more than once pursued him when employed in these researches. But very little credit was given to any account he gave, and it was generally supposed that he had lived by occasionally visiting and robbing the huts at Sydney and Parramatta. He had taken to the woods to avoid a punishment which hung over him, and which he now received.

Early in the month eight settlers from the marines received their grants of land situated on the north side of the harbour near the Flats, and named by the governor the Field of Mars.

The convicts employed in cultivating and clearing public ground beyond Parramatta, having been landed in a weak and sickly state, wore in general a most miserable and emaciated appearance, and numbers of them died daily. The reduced ration by no means contributed to their amendment; the wheat that was raised last year (four hundred and sixty-one bushels) after reserving a sufficiency for seed, was issued to them at a pound per man per week, and a pound of rice per week was issued to each male convict at Sydney.

On Tuesday the 14th the signal was made for a sail, and shortly after the _Pitt_, Captain Edward Manning, anch.o.r.ed in the cove from England. She sailed the 17th of last July from Yarmouth Roads, and had rather a long pa.s.sage, touching at St. Iago, Rio de Janeiro, and the Cape of Good Hope.

She had on board Francis Grose, esq the lieutenant-governor of the settlements, and major-commandant of the New South Wales corps, one company of which, together with the adjutant and surgeon's mate, came out with him.

She brought out three hundred and nineteen male and forty-nine female convicts, five children, and seven free women; with salt provisions calculated to serve that number of people ten months, but which would only furnish the colony with provisions for forty days. The supply of provisions was confined to salt meat, under an idea that the colony was not in immediate want of flour, and that a supply had been sent from Calcutta, which, together with what had been procured from Batavia, that which had been sent before from England, and the grain that might have been raised in the settlements, would be adequate to our consumption for the present. The dispatches, however, which had been forwarded from this place by the _Justinian_ in July 1790 having been received by the secretary of state, what appeared from those communications to be necessary for the colony were to be sent in one or more ships to be dispatched in the autumn of last year, with an additional number of convicts, and the remaining company of the New South Wales corps. A sloop in frame, of the burden of forty-one tons, was sent out in the _Pitt_; to make room for which, several bales of clothing, and many very useful articles, were obliged to be shut out.

By this conveyance information was received, that the _Daedalus_ hired storeship, which was sent out to carry provisions to the Sandwich islands for two ships employed in those parts on discovery, was directed to repair to this settlement after performing that service, to be employed as there should be occasion, and that she might be expected in the beginning of the year 1793.

The _Pitt_ brought in many of her convicts sick; and several of her seamen and fifteen soldiers of the New South Wales corps had died shortly after her leaving St. Iago, owing to her having touched there during an unhealthy season.

The whole of the New South Wales corps, except one company, being now arrived, the numbers requisite for the different duties were settled; and one company, consisting of a captain, two lieutenants, one ensign, three sergeants, three corporals, two drummers, and seventy privates, was fixed for the duty of Parramatta; a like number for Norfolk Island, and the remainder were to do duty at Sydney, the head quarters of the corps.

Permission having been obtained, a shop was opened at a hut on sh.o.r.e for the sale of various articles brought out in the _Pitt_; and notwithstanding a fleet of transports had but lately sailed hence, notwithstanding the different orders which had been sent to Bengal, and the high price at which every thing was sold, the avidity with which all descriptions of people grasped at what was to be purchased was extraordinary, and could only be accounted for by the distance of our situation from the mother country, the uncertainty of receiving supplies thence, and the length of time which we had heretofore the mortification to find elapse without our receiving any.

March.] It being necessary to send to Norfolk Island a proportion of what provisions were in store, the Pitt was engaged for that purpose; and for performing this service her owners were to receive 651, a sum equal to six weeks demurrage for that ship. From Norfolk Island she was to proceed, upon her owners account, to Bengal; and her commander was charged with duplicates of the letters and instructions given to Lieutenant Bowen. In the event of any accident having prevented the arrival of that officer at Calcutta, Captain Manning was to cause the service with which he was entrusted to be executed, by applying to the governor-general, and the house of Messrs. Lambert, Ross, and company, for the supply of provisions, which the _Atlantic_ was to have brought, to be forwarded to this country either by the _Pitt_, or by vessels to be hired by that house at Calcutta.

This precaution was taken rather to guard against the worst that might happen, than from any probability that the _Atlantic_ would not have reached Calcutta, that ship being well fitted for such a voyage, strong, well manned, and under the direction of an able and an active officer. To her arrival, however, we looked forward at this period with some anxiety, as the flour and salt provisions in the settlement already occupied but a small portion of the stores which contained them, there being only fifty-two days flour, and twenty-one weeks salt meat in store at the ration now issued.

On the morning of Sat.u.r.day the 17th the marines and New South Wales corps formed under arms on the parade in front of the quarters, when his Majesty's commission appointing Francis Grose, Esquire, to be lieutenant-governor of this territory, and the letters patent under the great seal for establishing the civil and criminal courts of judicature, were publicly read by the judge-advocate. The governor and the princ.i.p.al officers of the settlement attended, and his excellency received from the corps under arms the honours due to his rank in the colony. At the conclusion of the ceremony, the _Pitt_, by a well-concerted signal, saluted with fifteen guns, as a compliment to the lieutenant-governor.

A person who came out to this country in the capacity of a carpenter's mate on board the _Sirius_, and who had been discharged from that ship's books into the _Supply_, having been left behind when that vessel sailed for England, offered his services to put together the vessel that arrived in frame in the _Pitt_; and being deemed sufficiently qualified as a shipwright, he was engaged at two shillings _per diem_ and his provisions to set her up. Her keel was accordingly laid down on blocks placed for the purpose near the landing-place on the east side. As this person was the only shipwright in the colony, the vessel would much sooner have rendered the services which were required of her, had she been put together, coppered, and sent out manned and officered from England; by these means too the colony would have received many articles which were of necessity shut out of the _Pitt_ to make room for her stowage.

About this time a malady of an alarming nature was perceived in the colony. Four or five of the convicts were seized with insanity; and, as the major part of those who were visited by this calamity were females, who on account of their s.e.x were not hara.s.sed with hard labour, and who in general shared largely of such little comforts as were to be procured in the settlement, it was difficult to a.s.sign a cause for this disorder.

April.] With a dreadful sick list, and with death making rapid strides among us, the month of April commenced: a lamentable circ.u.mstance to those who had to provide by their labour for the support of a colony, in which, from its great distance, not only from the parent country, but from every port where supplies could be procured, it became an object of the first magnitude and importance to endeavour speedily, and by every possible exertion, to place its inhabitants in a situation that accident or delay might not affect. His Majesty's ship _Guardian_ afforded a melancholy recollection how much this colony had already felt from misadventure, and the delay which occurred in the voyage of the _Lady Juliana_ transport had proved equally calamitous. The recent circ.u.mstance of a ship arriving without a supply of flour, and other contingencies, spoke with a warning voice, and loudly demanded that every arm which could be raised should be exerted to make provision against the hour of want. Few, however, in comparison with the measure of our necessities, were the numbers daily brought into the field for the purpose of cultivation; and of those who could handle the hoe or the spade by far the greater part carried hunger in their countenances; but it was earnestly hoped and anxiously expected, that by the speedy arrival of supplies from England the full ration of every species of provisions would be again issued, when labour would be renewed with additional vigour and effect; health and strength be seen residing among us; and the approaches of independence on Great Britain be something more than a sanguine hope or visionary speculation.

The convicts, and such stores and provisions as the governor thought it necessary to send to Norfolk Island, being embarked, the _Pitt_ sailed on the 7th. Previous to her departure, a female convict was found secreted on board, who declaring in her justification that the fourth mate of the ship had a.s.sisted her in her escape, he was tried by the civil court of judicature for taking a convict from the settlement, but, for want of sufficient proof, was acquitted.

The practicability of being secreted on board of ships would always operate as an inducement to wretches who saw a long term of servitude before them to attempt their escape; but it certainly behoved every master of a merchantman bound from this port to be very vigilant and sedulous to prevent their succeeding, as the safety of the ship might be very much endangered by having numbers of such people on board mixing with their ship's company.

On Friday the 13th died Mr. David Burton, of a gunshot wound which he received on the preceding Sat.u.r.day. This young man, on account of the talents he possessed as a botanist, and the services which he was capable of rendering in the surveying line, could be but ill spared in this settlement. His loss was occasioned by one of those accidents which too frequently happen to persons who are inexperienced in the use of fire-arms. Mr. Burton had been out with Ensign Beckwith, and some soldiers of the New South Wales corps, intending to kill ducks on the Nepean. With that sensation of the mind which is called presentiment he is said to have set out, having more than once observed, that he feared some accident would happen before his return; and he did not cease to be tormented with this unpleasant idea, until his gun, which he carried rather awkwardly, went off, and lodged its contents in the ground within a few inches of the feet of the person who immediately preceded him in the walk through the woods. Considering this as the accident which his mind foreboded, he went on afterwards perfectly freed from any apprehension. But he was deceived. Reaching the banks of the river, they found on its surface innumerable flocks of those fowl of which they were in search. Mr. Burton, in order to have a better view of them, got upon the stump of a tree, and, resting his hand upon the muzzle of his piece, raised himself by its a.s.sistance as high as he was able. The b.u.t.t of the piece rested on the ground, which was thickly covered with long gra.s.s, shrubs, and weeds. No one saw the danger of such a situation in time to prevent what followed. By some motion of this unfortunate young man the piece went off, and the contents, entering at his wrist, forced their way up between the two bones of his right arm, which were much shattered, to the elbow. Mr. Beckwith, by a very happy presence of mind, applying bandages torn from a shirt, succeeded in stopping the vast effusion of blood which ensued, or his patient must soon have bled to death. This accident happened at five in the afternoon, and it was not till ten o'clock at night of the following day that Mr. Burton was brought into Parramatta. The consequence was, such a violent fever and inflammation had taken place that any attempt to save life by amputation would only have hastened his end. In the night of the 12th the mortification came on, and he died the following morning, leaving behind him, what he universally enjoyed while living, the esteem and respect of all who knew him.

A person of a far different character and description met with an accidental death the following day. He had been employed to take some provisions to a settler who occupied a farm on the creek leading to Parramatta, and was killed by a blow from the limb of a tree, which fell on his head and fractured his skull, without having allowed him that time for repentance of which a sinful life stood so much in need. His companions and fellow prisoners (for he was a convict) declared him to have been so great a reprobate, that he was scarcely ever known to speak without an oath, or without calling on his Maker as a witness to the truth of the lie he was about to utter.

The weather had been for some days extremely bad, heavy storms of wind and rain having generally prevailed from Monday the 9th till Friday the 13th, when fair weather succeeded. At Parramatta the gale had done much damage; several huts which were built in low grounds were rendered almost inaccessible, and the greater part of the wattled huts suffered considerably. A large portion of the cleared ground was laid under water, and such corn as had not been reaped was beaten down. At Sydney the effects of the storm, though it had been equally violent, were not so severe. Most of the houses were rendered damp, and had leaks in different parts; seeds which had been recently sown were washed out of the ground, and the bridge over the stream was somewhat injured. In the woods it had raged with much violence; the people employed to kill game reported that it was dangerous to walk in the forests; and the ground, covered with huge limbs or whole trunks of trees, confirmed the truth of their report.

The bricklayers were immediately sent up to Parramatta, to repair the damages effected by the storm; and the bridge at Sydney was not only repaired, but considerably widened.

On Sat.u.r.day the 13th an alteration took place in the ration. Three pounds of flour, and two pounds of maize, with four pounds of pork, were served to each man, and three pounds of flour, and one pound of maize, with four pounds of pork, were served to each woman in the settlement.The children received the usual proportion. To such alterations the settlement had now for some years been habituated; and although it was well known that they never were imposed but when the state of the stores rendered them absolutely necessary, it was impossible to meet the deduction without reflecting, that the established ration would have been adequate to every want; the plea of hunger could not have been advanced as the motive and excuse for thefts; and disease would not have met so powerful an ally in its ravages among the debilitated and emaciated objects which the gaols had crowded into transports, and the transports had landed in these settlements.

The works in hand were, building brick huts at Sydney for convicts, consisting of two apartments, each hut being twenty-six feet in front, and fourteen feet in width, and intended to contain ten people, with a suitable allotment of garden ground; completing tanks for water; widening the bridge, etc. One day in each week was dedicated to issuing provisions, and the labour of the other five (with interruptions from bad weather, and the plea of the reduced ration) did not amount in all to three good working days.

At Parramatta the princ.i.p.al labour was the getting in and housing the maize, and preparing ground for the next year's grain. The foundations of two material buildings were laid, a town-hall and an hospital. The town-hall was intended to include a market-place for the sale of grain, fish, poultry, live stock, wearing apparel, and every other article that convicts might purchase or sell. An order establishing this regulation had been given out at Parramatta, and a clerk of the market appointed to register every commodity that was brought for sale or barter; directing, in the case of non-compliance, the forfeiture both of the purchase-money and of the article, to be given, one moiety to the informer, and the other to the hospital for the benefit of the sick.