An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales Volume I Part 29

On board the _Kitty_ were embarked Mr. Dennis Considen, one of the a.s.sistant-surgeons of the settlement, who had received permission to return to England on account of his health, which had been formerly impaired in the East Indies, Lieutenant Stephen Donovan, who had been employed in superintending the landing of provisions and stores at Norfolk Island, and was now returning to England, having been appointed a lieutenant in the navy; Mr. Richard Clarke, who came out in the _Bellona_ as a medical superintendant; Mr. Alexander Purvis Cranston, late surgeon of his Majesty's sloop _Discovery_, who was returning to England, being from ill health no longer capable of attending to the duties of his profession; Mr. Henry Phillips, late carpenter of the same vessel, who was sent hither to be forwarded to England as a prisoner; two seamen and one marine, invalids from the vessels under the command of Captain Vancouver; five men and one woman*, who, their terms of transportation being expired, were permitted to return to their friends; the seaman who was left behind from the _Atrevida_; also five men, who were permitted to enter on board the _Kitty_ for the purpose of navigating her. For the officers and invalids who were on board, provisions for six months were sent from the colony; but the others provided for themselves.

[* Dorothy Handland, who at the time of her departure was upwards of eighty years of age, but who nevertheless had not a doubt of weathering Cape Horn.]

The services of the _Kitty_ were to be summed up in very few words. Of ten artificers with which she sailed from England, she lost eight; and of the cargo of stores and provisions which she brought out, a part was damaged. In seventeen months that she had been in the service of government, she had made a long and circuitous voyage from England, and had taken one freight of provisions, stores, and troops to Norfolk Island from this place. For these services her owners were to receive the sum of 3500; and, allowing her to be seven months on her pa.s.sage to England, the total amount of her hire will be found to be very little short of 5000.

His Majesty's birthday pa.s.sed with the usual marks of distinction.

The regiment fired three vollies on their own parade, and the convicts were allowed the day to themselves. On this occasion also the lieutenant-governor caused twelve of the largest hogs which had been received by the _Daedalus_, to be killed and divided among the military, superintendants, and sick at the hospital; sufficient being given to the latter for two days.

Notwithstanding the purchases of provisions which had fortunately been made from the _Philadelphia_ brigantine before governor Phillip's departure, and since that time from the _Hope_ and from the _Shah Hormuzear_, the lieutenant-governor found it necessary on the 12th of the month to give notice, 'That unless supplies arrived before the 22nd he should be under the disagreeable necessity of ordering the ration to be reduced on that day.'

A view of the provisions remaining in store here and at Parramatta on the 24th of last month (the date of the return sent home by the commissary in the _Kitty_) will evince the necessity of such an alteration.

On the 24th of May there were in store

Of Flour 137,944 lbs Of Wheat 154,560 lbs Of Paddy 49,248 lbs

making a total of three hundred and forty-one thousand seven hundred and fifty-two pounds of grain; which, at the established ration of eight pounds per man per week, would last six weeks and three days.

Beef 93,969 lbs Pork 125,178 lbs

which, at the ration of seven pounds of beef, or four pounds of pork, per man per week, would last, the beef five weeks, and the pork eleven weeks and a half.

There was also in store, though not at present issued, the Indian corn rendering it unnecessary, seventy-one thousand two hundred and eighty pounds of grain and peas; which, at the allowance of three pints per man per week, would last eight weeks and a half, and nineteen thousand eight hundred pounds of sugar; which, at six ounces per man per week, would last eighteen weeks and a half. This latter article had been issued since the beginning of the last month, when it was served as an equivalent for oil.

It must be remarked, that but for the purchases which had most fortunately been made of provisions, the colony must at this moment have been again groaning under the oppression of a very reduced ration.

From the Philadelphia were purchased Beef 109,817 lbs.

From the Hope were purchased Beef 38,600 lbs.

From the Shah Hormuzear were purchased Beef 107,988 lbs.

------- Total of Beef 256,405 lbs.

From the Hope were purchased Pork 15,600 lbs.

------- Whole quant.i.ty purchased 272,005 lbs.

of which, deducting the quant.i.ty remaining, we shall be found to have then consumed fifty-two thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight pounds, something more than equal to one-fifth part.

From the Hope were purchased Flour 8,800 lbs.

From the Shah Hormuzear were purchased Flour 36,539 lbs.

------- Whole quant.i.ty purchased 45,339 lbs.

which deducted from the quant.i.ty remaining, we should then only have had in store 92,605 lbs.

of the other articles of which the present ration was composed (the maize excepted) we should not have had any in the colony; for the wheat and the sugar were brought hither in the ship from Bengal.

As none of these incidental supplies could be known in England, it was fair to conclude, that our situation must have been adverted to, and that ships with provisions were now not very distant. Under this idea, although on the 22nd no supplies had arrived, the lieutenant-governor did not make any alteration in the ration, determining to wait one week longer before he directed the necessary reduction. It was always a painful duty to abridge the food of the labouring man, and had been too often exercised here. The putting off, therefore, the evil day for another week in the hope of any decrease being rendered unnecessary by the arrival of supplies, met with general applause.

On the Monday following the signal was made for a sail, and about nine o'clock at night the _Britannia_ was safe within the Heads, having to a day completed eight months since she sailed hence. The length of time she had been absent gave birth to some anxiety upon her account, and her arrival was welcomed with proportionate satisfaction.

Mr. Raven touched at Dusky Bay in New Zealand, where he left his second mate Mr. John Leith and some of his people, for the purpose of procuring seals (the princ.i.p.al object of his voyage from England); and of the timber which he found there he made a very favourable report, p.r.o.nouncing it to be light, tough, and in every respect fit for masts or yards. From New Zealand the _Britannia_, after rounding Cape Horn in very favourable weather, proceeded to the island of Santa Catherina, on the Brasil coast, where the Portuguese have a settlement, and from whose governor Mr. Raven received much civility during the eighteen days that he remained there.

Not being able to procure at this place any of the articles he was instructed to purchase (one cow and one cow-calf excepted) he stood over to the African continent, and arrived at the Cape of Good Hope on the 24th of March last. At this port he took on board thirty cows; three mares; twelve goats; a quant.i.ty of flour, sugar, tobacco, and spirits; and other articles, according to the orders of his employers. Mr. Raven afforded another instance of the great difficulty attending the transporting of cattle to this country; for, notwithstanding the extreme care and attention which were paid to them, twenty-nine of the cows and three goats unfortunately died. This he attributed solely, and no doubt justly, to their not being properly prepared for such a voyage, and previously fed for some weeks on dry food.

In her pa.s.sage from the Cape of Good Hope to this port, the _Britannia_ met with much bad weather, running for fourteen days under her bare poles. The prevailing winds were from SW to NW. She came round Van Dieman's Land in a gale of wind without seeing it. To the southward of New Zealand Mr. Raven fell in with the rocks seen by Captain Vancouver, and named by him the Snares. In the lat.i.tude of them Mr. Raven differed from Captain Vancouver only four miles; their longitude he made exactly the same. Such similarity in the observations was rare and remarkable. He pa.s.sed some islands of ice at three and five leagues distance, in lat.i.tudes 51 degrees and 52 degrees S and longitudes 232 degrees and 240 degrees East.

At the Cape Mr. Raven found the _Pitt_, Captain Manning, from Calcutta, to whom he delivered his dispatches; and he received information from the captains of the _Triton_ and _Warley_ East Indiamen of the agitated state of Europe; of the naval and military preparations which were making in our own country; and of the spirit of loyalty and affection for our justly-revered sovereign which breathed throughout the nation, accompanied with firm and general determinations to maintain inviolate our happy const.i.tution. These accounts, while they served to excite an ardent wish for the speedy arrival of a ship from England, seemed to throw the probability of one at a greater distance, particularly as Mr. Raven could not learn with any certainty of a ship being preparing for New South Wales.

Among other circ.u.mstances which he mentioned was one which deserved notice. The _Royal Admiral_ East Indiaman, Captain Bond, was lying on the 19th of last December in the Tigris. She sailed hence on the 13th of November, and, admitting that she had only arrived on the day on which she was stated to a certainty to be at anchor in the river, she must have performed the voyage in thirty-seven days from this port. This ship, it may be remembered, made the pa.s.sage from the Cape of Good Hope to this place in five weeks and three days; a run that had never before been made by any other ship coming to this country.

From the length of time which the _Britannia_ had been absent, our observation was forcibly drawn to the distance whereat we were placed from any quarter which could furnish us with supplies; and a calculation of the length of time which had been taken by other ships to procure them confirmed the necessity that existed of using every exertion that might place the colony in a state of independence.

When the _Sirius_ went to the Cape of Good Hope in 1788, she was absent seven months and six days.

The _Supply_, which was sent for provisions in 1789, returned herself in six months and two days; but the supplies which had been purchased for the colony were two months longer in reaching it.

The _Atlantic_ sailed hence for Calcutta on the 26th of October 1791, touching at Norfolk Island, from which place she took her departure on the 13th of November; and, calculating her pa.s.sage from that time, she will be found to have been seven months and one week in procuring the supplies for which she was sent out.

The _Britannia_ too was eight months absent. From all this it was to be inferred, that there should not only be always provisions in the stores for twelve months beforehand; but that, to guard against accidents, whenever the provisions in the colony were reduced to that quant.i.ty and no more, then would be the time to dispatch a ship for supplies.

The difficulty of introducing cattle into the colony had been rendered evident by the miscarriage of the different attempts made by this and other ships. In this particular we had indeed been singularly unfortunate; for we had not only lost the greatest part of what had been purchased and embarked for the colony, as will appear by the following statement; but we had at the beginning, as will be remembered, lost the few that did survive the pa.s.sage. Of these it never was known with any certainty what had been the fate. Some of the natives who resided among us did, in observing some that had been landed, declare that they had seen them destroyed by their own people; and even offered to lead any one to the place where some of their bones might be found; but, from the distance of the supposed spot, and our more important concerns, this had never been sought after. It was very probable that they had been so destroyed; if not, and that they had met with no other accident, their increase at this time must have been very considerable.

Account of Black Cattle purchased for, lost in the pa.s.sage to, and landed in New South Wales.

Purchased Lost in Landed Pa.s.sage (B=Bull Cw=Cow Cf=Calf) B Cw Cf B Cw Cf B Cw Cf Embarked in 1787 on board the Sirius and one of the transports 1 7 1 - 2 - 1 5 1 Embarked in 1789 on board the Guardian 2 16 - 2 16 - - - - Embarked in 1791 on board the Gorgon, Admiral Barrington, and calved on the pa.s.sage 3 24 1 3 7 - - 17 1 Bull Embarked on board the Atlantic in 1792, at Calcutta 2 2 1 - 1 1 2 1 - Embarked on board the Pitt - 2 - - 1 - - 1 - Embarked on board the Royal Admiral - 1 - - - - - - 0 Embarked on board the Shah Hormuzear in 1792, in India 1 24 2 1 23 - - 1 2 Embarked on board the Daedalus 6 12 - 6 12 - - - - Embarked on board the Britannia - 31 1 - 29 - - 2 1

Total Purchased 15 bulls, 119 cows, 6 calves; Total Lost in the pa.s.sage 12 bulls, 91 cows, 1 calf; Total Landed 3 bulls, 28 cows, 5 calves.

Of the three bulls which were landed two only were living at this period, beside the bull calf produced on board the _Gorgon_. Of the twenty-eight cows only twenty, and of the five calves only two were living; but the cows which arrived in the _Gorgon_ had produced three cow and two bull calves; and one small cow must be added to the number in the colony, which had been presented by the Spanish commodore to the lieutenant-governor.

Sheep, horses, and hogs were found, better than any other stock, to stand the rough weather which was in general met with between the Cape of Good Hope and this country.

The mortality which had happened among the stock on board the _Britannia_ set a high price on those which survived. For the cows Mr. Raven bought at the Cape he gave twenty dollars each, and for each horse he gave thirty dollars. For the cow with her calf, which he purchased at Santa Catharina, he gave no more than sixteen Spanish dollars.

On Sat.u.r.day the 29th, the lieutenant-governor determining to try the present ration yet another week, the usual allowance was issued, and on the next day the following general order appeared: 'It being unsafe to continue at the present ration, the commissary has received instructions to reduce the weekly allowance, either one pound of pork, or two pounds of beef, making a proportionate deduction from the women and children.

This alteration to take place on Sat.u.r.day the 6th of July.'

The natives had lately become troublesome, particularly in lurking between the different settlements, and forcibly taking provisions and clothing from the convicts who were pa.s.sing from one to another. One or two convicts having been wounded by them, some small armed parties were sent out to drive them away, and to throw a few shot among them, but with positive orders to be careful not to take a life.

Several of these people, however, continued to reside in the town, and to mix with the inhabitants in the most unreserved manner. It was no uncommon circ.u.mstance to see them coming into town with bundles of fire-wood which they had been hired to procure, or bringing water from the tanks; for which services they thought themselves well rewarded with any worn-out jacket or trousers, or blankets, or a piece of bread. Of this latter article they were all exceedingly fond, and their constant prayer was for bread, importuning with as much earnestness and perseverance as if begging for bread had been their profession from their infancy; and their attachment to us must be considered as an indication of their not receiving any ill treatment from us.

CHAPTER XXII

The _Daedalus_ sails for Nootka A temporary church founded Criminal court The colonial vessel launched A scheme to take a longboat Two soldiers desert Counterfeit dollars in circulation A soldier punished The _Boddingtons_ arrives from Cork General Court Martial held The _Britannia_ hired and chartered for Bengal The new church opened Accident Provisions in store Corn purchased from settlers The _Britannia_ sails for Bengal, and the _Francis_ Schooner for New Zealand Irish convicts steal a boat The _Sugar Cane_ arrives Intended mutiny on board prevented Excursion to the westward Public works

July.] On the first of this month the _Daedalus_ sailed to convey to Captain Vancouver the provisions and stores which had been required by that officer. Lieutenant Hanson, the naval agent on board, received the most pointed orders for the ship to return to this port immediately after having executed the service on which she was then going. The _Daedalus_ was considered as a colonial ship; and nothing but Captain Vancouver's express requisition to have the stores and provisions which were on board her (the stores being chiefly articles of traffic) sent back to him, to enable him to fulfil the instructions he had received, would have induced the lieutenant-governor, in the present state of the colony, to have parted with her, when it was not improbable that her services might be wanting to procure supplies, and at no very distant period, if ships did not arrive.