An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales Volume I Part 30

The _Daedalus_ being, like other ships which had preceded her, short of hands, the master was permitted to recruit his numbers here, and took with him six convicts, who had served their several terms of transportation, and were of good character; and two seamen, who had been left behind from other ships. The extensive population of the islands at some of which the _Daedalus_ might have occasion to touch rendered it absolutely necessary that she should be completely manned; as we well knew the readiness with which, at all times, their inhabitants availed themselves of any inferiority or weakness which they might discover among us.

On board of the _Daedalus_ also was embarked a native of this country, who was sent by the lieutenant-governor for the purpose of acquiring our language. Lieutenant Hanson was directed by no means to leave him at Nootka, but, if he survived the voyage, to bring him back safe to his friends and countrymen. His native names were Gnung-a gnung-a, Mur-re-mur-gan; but he had for a long time entirely lost them, even among his own people, who called him 'Collins,' after the judge-advocate, whose name he had adopted on the first day of his coming among us. He was a man of a more gentle disposition than most of his a.s.sociates; and, from the confidence he placed in us, very readily undertook the voyage, although he left behind him a young wife (a sister of Bennillong who accompanied Governor Phillip) of whom he always appeared extremely fond.

On Sat.u.r.day the 6th the intended change took place in the ration; and it being a week on which pork was to be issued, three pounds of that article were served instead of four. The other articles remained the same.

The clergyman, who suffered as much inconvenience as other people from the want of a proper place for the performance of divine service, himself undertook to remove the evil, on finding that, from the pressure of other works it was not easy to foresee when a church would be erected. He accordingly began one under his own inspection, and chose the situation for it at the back of the huts on the east side of the cove. The front was seventy-three feet by fifteen; and at right angles with the centre projected another building forty feet by fifteen. The edifice was constructed of strong posts, wattles, and plaster, and was to be thatched.* Much credit was due to the Rev. Mr. Johnson for his personal exertions on this occasion.

[* The expense of building it was computed to be about forty pounds]

Representation having been made to the lieutenant-governor, that several of the soldiers had been so thoughtless as to dispose of the sugar and tobacco which had been served out to them by their officers since the arrival of the _Britannia_, almost as soon as they had received those articles, and that some artful people had availed themselves of their indiscretion, in many instances bartering a bottle of spirits (Cape brandy) for six times its value, he judged it necessary to give notice, that any convict detected in exchanging liquor with the soldiers for any article served out to them by their officers, would immediately be punished, and the articles purchased taken away: and further (now become a most necessary restriction), that any persons attempting to sell liquor without a licence might rely on its being seized, and the houses of the offending parties pulled down.

About the middle of the month all the wheat which was to be sown on the public account was got in at and near Toongabbie; the quant.i.ty of ground was about three hundred and eighty acres. The wheat of last season being now nearly thrashed out, some judgment was formed of its produce, and it was found to have averaged between seventeen and eighteen bushels an acre. A large quant.i.ty of wheat was also sown this season by individuals, amounting to about one thousand three hundred and eighty-one bushels, every encouragement having been given to them to sow their grounds with that grain.

Several houses having been lately broken open, the criminal court of judicature was a.s.sembled on the 15th, when Samuel Wright, a convict who arrived in 1791, was tried for breaking into a hut in the day-time, and stealing several articles of wearing apparel; of which offence being found guilty, he received sentence of death, and was to have been executed on the Monday following; but the court having recommended him to mercy on account of his youth, being only sixteen years of age, the lieutenant-governor as readily forgave as the court had recommended him; but, that the prisoner might have all the benefit of so awful a situation, the change in his fate was not imparted to him until the very moment when he was about to ascend the ladder from which he was to be plunged into eternity. He had appeared since his conviction as if devoid of feeling; but on receiving this information, he fell on his knees in an agony of joy and grat.i.tude. The solemn scene appeared likewise to make a forcible impression on all his fellow prisoners, who were present.

The weather of this winter having been colder than any that we had before experienced, great exertions were made to clothe all the labouring convicts; and for that purpose the work of the tailors had for some time been confined to them. Every male convict received one cloth jacket, two canvas frocks, one pair of shoes, and one leathern cap. The females also had been clothed.

The vessel which had been received in frame by the _Pitt_ was now completed, and, to avoid the labour which would have attended her being launched in the usual manner, Mr. Raven, the master of the _Britannia_, offered his own services and the a.s.sistance of his ship to lay her down upon her bilge, and put her into the water on rollers. This mode having been adopted, in the forenoon of Wednesday the 24th of this month she was safely let down upon the rollers, and by dusk, with the a.s.sistance of the _Britannia_, was hove down to low-water mark, whence, at a quarter before eight o'clock, she floated with the tide, and was hauled safely alongside the _Britannia_. The ceremony of christening her was performed at sunrise the next morning, when she was named _The Francis_, in compliment to the lieutenant-governor's son, whose birthday this was; and, Mr. Raven coinciding with the general opinion that she would be much safer if rigged as a schooner than as a sloop, for which she had been originally intended, the carpenters were directed to fit her accordingly; and that gentleman very obligingly supplied a spar, which he had procured for the _Britannia_ at Dusky Bay, to make her a foremast.

The command of this little vessel, of whose utility great expectations were formed, was given by the lieutenant-governor to Mr. William House, late boatswain of the _Discovery_, who arrived here in the _Daedalus_ for the purpose of proceeding to England as an invalid; but being strongly recommended by Captain Vancouver as an excellent seaman, with whom he was very unwilling to part, and signifying a wish to be employed in this country, the command of this vessel was given to him, with the same allowance that is made to a superintendant; on which list he was placed.

The two boys who were left behind from the _Kitty_ were also entered for her, and she was ordered to be fitted forthwith for sea. As it was well known that many people had their eyes upon this vessel as the means of their escaping from the colony, it was intended, in addition to other precautions, that none but the most trusty people should ever be employed in her.

On the last day of the month a plan to take off one of the longboats was revealed to the lieutenant-governor. The princ.i.p.al parties in it were soldiers; and their scheme was, to proceed to Java, with a chart of which they had by some means been furnished. If their plan had been put into execution, the evil would have carried with it its own punishment; for, had they survived the voyage, they would never have been countenanced by the Dutch, who were always very jealous of strangers coming among them, and had, no doubt, heard of the desertion of Bryant and his a.s.sociates from this settlement. Two of the soldiers were immediately put into confinement; and in the night two others, one a corporal, went off into the woods, taking with them their arms, about one hundred rounds of powder and ball, which they collected from the different pouches in the barrack, their provisions and necessaries.

The princ.i.p.al works in hand by the people at Sydney were, erecting kitchens and storerooms for the officers' new barracks, bringing in timber for rollers for the sloop, and constructing huts at Petersham for convicts. At Toongabbie the Indian corn was not all gathered, and housing of that, and preparing the ground for the reception of the next season's crop, occupied the labouring convicts at that settlement.

Some counterfeit dollars were at this time in circulation; but the manufacturers of them were not discovered.

August.] The two soldiers who were put into confinement on suspicion of being parties in a plan to seize one of the long-boats, were tried by a regimental court-martial on the first day of this month, and one was acquitted; but Roberts, a drummer, who was proved to have attempted to persuade another drummer to be of the party, was sentenced to receive three hundred lashes, and in the evening did receive two hundred and twenty-five of them. While smarting under the severity with which his punishment was inflicted, he gave up the names of six or eight of his brother soldiers as concerned with him, among whom were the two who had absented themselves the preceding evening. These people, the day following their desertion, were met in the path to Parramatta, and told an absurd story of their being sent to the Blue Mountains. They were next heard of at a settler's (John Nicholls) at Prospect Hill, whose house they entered forcibly, and, making him and a convict hutkeeper prisoners, pa.s.sed the night there. At another settler's they took sixteen pounds of flour, which they sent by his wife to a woman well known to one of them, and had them baked into small loaves. They signified a determination not to be taken alive, and threatened to lie in wait for the game-killers, of whose ammunition they meant to make themselves masters. These declarations manifested the badness of their hearts, and the weakness of their cause; and the lieutenant-governor, on being made acquainted with them, sent out a small armed party to secure and bring them in, rightly judging that people who were so ready at expressing every where a resolution to part with their lives rather than be taken, would not give much trouble in securing them.

This desertion, and the disaffection of those who meant to take off a long-boat, was the more unaccountable, as the commanding officer had uniformly treated them with every indulgence, putting it entirely out of their power to complain on that head. Spirits and other comforts had been procured for them; he had distinguished them from the convicts in the ration of provisions; he had allowed them to build themselves comfortable huts, permitting them while so employed the use of the public boats; he had indulged them with women; and, in a word, have never refused any of them a request which did not militate against the rules of the service, or of the discipline which he had laid down for the New South Wales corps; at the same time, however, to prevent these indulgencies from falling into contempt, they were counterbalanced by a certainty of their being withdrawn when abused, and flagrant offenders were sure of meeting with punishment: yet there were many among them who were so ungrateful for the benefits which they received, and so unmindful of their own interest and accommodation, that they behaved ill whenever they had an opportunity.

The parties who had been sent after the runaways, by dividing themselves, fell in with them near Toongabbie on the 6th. and secured them without any opposition.

There were at this time in the New South Wales corps, distributed among the different companies, thirty recruits who had been selected from among the convicts as people of good characters, and, having formerly been in the army, were permitted to enlist. These people had conducted themselves with remarkable propriety, one man only excepted, who had some time since been punished by the sentence of a court-martial, and who afterwards misbehaving was discharged from the corps. They were in general enlisted for life, a condition to which they subscribed on being attested; and such as had a long time to serve under their sentence, were emanc.i.p.ated on the above condition.

On the 7th the _Boddingtons_ transport anch.o.r.ed in the cove from Ireland, having sailed from Cork on the 15th of February last, with one hundred and twenty-four male, and twenty female convicts of that kingdom on board, provisions calculated to serve them nine months* after their arrival, and a proportion of clothing for twelve months. As a guard, there was embarked a subaltern's party of the New South Wales corps; and this precaution was found to have been very necessary, the ignorance of the Irish convicts having displayed itself in an absurd scheme to take the ship; but which was happily frustrated by the vigilance and activity of the master** and the officers.

[* Two hundred and twenty-eight barrels of flour; one hundred and eight tierces of pork, and fifty-four tierces of beef, twenty-eight bales and thirteen cases of stores.]

[* Captain Robert Chalmers, on the captain's half pay of the marines.]

Mr. Richards jun, who had the contract for supplying the ships which sailed for this country in 1788 and the _Lady Juliana_ transport, was employed again by government; a circ.u.mstance of general congratulation among the colonists on its being made known. On the present occasion he had contracted to furnish two ships to bring out three hundred male and female convicts from Ireland, with stores and provisions. The _Boddingtons_, being the first ready, sailed alone; the _Sugar Cane_ (the second ship) was at Deptford ready to drop down to Gravesend when her intended companion was about leaving Ireland. Government were to pay four pounds four shillings per ton for such stores as should be put on board, and for the convicts at the rate of twenty-two pounds per head. This mode of payment was complained of in the contract made formerly with Messrs. Calvert and Co.; but in the present instance the evil attending that contract was avoided, by a part of the above sum (five pounds) being left to be paid by certificate for every convict which should be landed.

No ship, however, could have brought out their convicts in higher order, nor could have given stronger proofs of attention to their health and accommodation, than did this vessel. Each had a bed to himself, and a new suit of clothes to land in. On the part of the crown also, to see justice done to the convicts, there was a surgeon of the navy on board, Mr. Kent, as a superintendant; and on the part of the contractor, a gentleman who had visited us before with Mr. Marshall, in the second voyage of the _Scarborough_ to this country, Mr. A. Jac. Bier, a surgeon also. They had not any sick list, and had lost only one man on the pa.s.sage.

Captain Chalmers informed us, that on his arrival at Rio de Janeiro, in which port he anch.o.r.ed on the 10th of last April, he heard that the _Atlantic_ transport had sailed thence about three weeks, and had made her pa.s.sage from this country round Cape Horn to Rio de Janeiro in fifty-eight days. He learned from the gentlemen about the palace, that his excellency Governor Phillip when he touched there appeared to be in perfect health. He had there too heard of the agitated state of Europe; and understanding that in all probability the Channel would be infested with French privateers, he purchased some guns, to strengthen the force which he had already on board the _Atlantic_.

Advices were received by this ship, that administration intended to make arrangements for our being supplied from Bengal with live cattle: and this became a favourite idea with every person in the colony; for the sheep, though small, were found to be very productive, breeding twice in the year, and generally bringing two lambs at a birth. The climate was also found to agree well with the cattle of the buffalo species which had been received.

The convicts received by the _Boddingtons_ were disembarked a day or two after her arrival, and sent up to Toongabbie. On quitting the ship they with one voice bore testimony to the humane treatment they had received from Captain Chalmers, declaring that they had not any complaints to prefer, and cheering him when the boats which carried them put off from her side.

It being necessary to mark with some degree of severity the offence which had been committed by the two soldiers, a general court-martial was a.s.sembled for their trial on the 12th. The lieutenant-governor, with much humanity, forebore to charge them with a capital offence; bringing them to trial for absenting themselves from head-quarters without leave, instead of the more serious crime of desertion.

By the mutiny act, a general court-martial may, in Africa, consist of less than thirteen commissioned officers, but not less than five; the like provision was also extended to New South Wales; and nine officers formed the court now a.s.sembled for the first time in this colony.

Captain Collins officiated as deputy judge-advocate. The prisoners did not deny the crime they were charged with; and the court, after reducing the corporal to the ranks, sentenced him to receive five hundred lashes, and the private soldier eight hundred. The sentence, being approved by the lieutenant-governor, was in part carried into execution on Sat.u.r.day the 17th, the corporal receiving two hundred and seventy-five, and the soldier three hundred lashes.

The _Britannia_ being now nearly ready for sea, having had some very necessary articles of repair done to her, and which the master declared had been as well executed by the artificers of the colony as if the ship had been in England, she was tendered to be employed for the service of the settlement wherever the lieutenant-governor might think it necessary to send her. In the charter-party of the _Boddingtons_, a clause was inserted, empowering the governor to send her to Norfolk Island, or elsewhere, should he have occasion, the crown paying the same hire as was paid for the _Atlantic_ transport (fifteen shillings and sixpence per ton per month) during the time she should be so employed. The _Britannia_ was tendered at one shilling per ton less, and had moreover the advantage of being a coppered ship.

It has been seen that the supply brought by the _Boddingtons_ was very inconsiderable. No greater quant.i.ty was expected with any degree of certainty by the _Sugar Cane_. The salt provisions remaining in store (by a calculation made up to the 28th) were sufficient for only fourteen weeks at the full ration, including what had been received by the _Boddingtons_, and some surplus provisions which had been purchased of the agent to the contractor, and one hundred casks of pork, which had been omitted by an oversight in the last account taken in May a few days before the _Kitty_ sailed. When it was considered that our supplies would always be affected by commotions at home, and that if a war should take place between England and any other nation, which at the departure of the _Boddingtons_ was hourly expected, they might be r.e.t.a.r.ded, or taken by the enemy, the lieutenant-governor determined, while he had in his own hands the means of supplying himself, to employ them; and on the 26th chartered the _Britannia_ for India. Our princ.i.p.al want was salt provisions; of flour we well remembered that Bengal produced none, and a coming crop was before us on our own grounds. The _Britannia_ was therefore to proceed to Bengal, to be freighted by the government of that presidency with salt provisions, Irish beef or pork; and in the event of its not being possible to procure them, the ship was to return loaded with sugar, rice, and dholl, these being the articles which, next to salt provisions, were the most wanted in the colony.

Mr. Raven, the master of the _Britannia_, having, as was before observed, left a mate and some of his people at Dusky Bay in New Zealand, the lieutenant-governor directed the _Francis_ to be got ready with all expedition, purposing that she should accompany the _Britannia_ as far on her way as that harbour, where she had permission to touch; and Mr. Raven was directed to transmit by the master all such information respecting that extensive bay, and the seal-fishery in its vicinity, as he should be of opinion might in anywise tend to the present or future benefit of his Majesty's service as connected with these settlements.

The clergyman having completed the building which he began in July last, divine service was performed in it for the first time on Sunday the 25th of this month; and for a temporary accommodation it appeared likely to answer very well. Mr. Johnson in his discourse, which was intended to impress the minds of his audience with the necessity of holiness in every place, lamented that the urgency of public works had prevented any undertaking of the kind before, and had thus thrown it upon him; he declared that he had no other motive for standing forward in the business, than that of establishing a place sheltered from bad weather, and from the summer heats, where public worship might be performed. He said, that the uncertainty of a place where they might attend had prevented many from coming; but he now hoped the attendance would be full whenever he preached there. The place was constructed to hold five hundred people.

It appeared by an estimate which Mr. Johnson afterwards gave in, for the purpose of being reimbursed what it had cost him, that the expense of this building considerably exceeded his first calculation, the whole amount of it being 67 12s 11d; of which Mr. Johnson paid to the different artificers he had employed 59 18s in dollars; twenty gallons and a half of spirits; one hundred and sixteen pounds of flour; fifty-two pounds of salt provisions; three pounds of tobacco; and five ounces of tea. Spirits were at this time sold in the colony at ten shillings per gallon; but Mr. Johnson observed in his estimate that he only charged that and other articles at the prices which they had actually cost him.

This account Mr. Johnson requested might be transmitted to the secretary of state, and he accompanied it with a letter stating his reasons for having undertaken the building?

The _Boddingtons_ were cleared of her cargo, and discharged from Government employ on the 26th. The cargo, when landed, was found in most excellent condition, not a single article being damaged; far different from that received by the _Bellona_, where the ship was overloaded. Had the _Boddingtons_ been coppered, no ship could have been better calculated for the transport of provisions to this country from any part of the world.

A remarkable instance of fecundity in a female goat occurred at the house of one of the superintendants at Sydney. She produced five kids, three females and two males, all of which died (a blow which the animal received bringing them before their time) excepting the first which was kidded, a female. The same goat in March last brought four kids, three males and one female, all of which lived. She was a remarkably fine creature.

Much apprehension was now entertained for the wheat, which began to look yellow and parched for want of rain. Toward the latter end of the month, however, some rain fell during three days and nights, which considerably refreshed it. But there being no fixed period at which wet weather was to be expected in this country, it might certainly be p.r.o.nounced too dry for wheat.

An unpleasant accident occurred at the lieutenant-governor's farm. A convict of good character, who had the care of the sheep, was found dead in the woods. He had declined coming in to his breakfast, and was left eating some bread made of Indian corn and coa.r.s.e-ground wheat. His body was opened, but no cause for his sudden dissolution could be a.s.signed from its appearance.

At the Ponds, a district of settlers in the neighbourhood of Parramatta, John Richards, in possession of a grant of thirty acres of land, died of intoxication. This was the first death which had occurred among any of the people of that description.

By an account taken of the provisions remaining in store on the 28th of the month, it appeared that we had, calculating each article at the established ration for two thousand eight hundred and forty-five persons, the numbers victualled at Sydney and Parramatta,

Flour, to last 4 weeks, -- or 91,040 lbs Beef, to last 3 weeks, -- or 59,745 lbs Pork, to last 11 weeks, -- or 125,180 lbs Wheat, to last 1 week, -- or 22,760 lbs Gram and Peas, to last 8 weeks, -- or 68,280 lbs Sugar, to last 3 weeks, -- or 3,200 lbs Paddy, 43,000 lbs

September.] Unproductive as the Indian corn proved which was sown last year on the public grounds, the settlers must have had a better crop; for, after reserving a sufficiency for seed for the ensuing season, and for their domestic purposes, a few had raised enough to enable them to sell twelve hundred bushels to Government, who, on receiving it into the public stores, paid five shillings per bushel to the bringer. Government, however, was not resorted to in the first instance by the settler, who preferred disposing of his corn where he could receive spirits in payment (which he retailed for labour) to bringing it to the commissary for five shillings a bushel; but at this price, from whose hands soever it might come, it was received into the public stores.

The _Britannia_ and _Francis_ schooner sailed on Sunday. the 8th for Dusky Bay. The _Francis_ was manned with seamen and boys who had been left here from ships, and the master had for his a.s.sistant as mate Robert Watson, who formerly belonged to his Majesty's ship _Sirius_, and was afterwards a settler at Norfolk Island; but his allotment having been erroneously surveyed, he, being obliged to resign a part of it, gave up the whole, and gladly returned to his former way of life. One of the three seamen who had been taken out of the _Kitty_, and punished, was permitted to enter on board the schooner; another of them was taken by the captain of the _Boddingtons_; Williams, the princ.i.p.al, remained in the colony, not bearing that sort of character which would recommend him to any master of a ship.

Captain Nicholas Nepean, the senior captain in the New South Wales corps, having been for some time past in an ill state of health, obtained the lieutenant-governor's leave to return to England by the way of Bengal, and quitted the colony in the _Britannia_. Three men and one woman also received permission to leave the settlement.

It might have been supposed, that the fatal consequences of endeavouring to seek a place in the woods of this country where they might live without labour had been sufficiently felt by the convicts who arrived here in the _Queen_ transport from Ireland, to deter others from rushing into the same error, as they would, doubtless, acquaint the new comers with the ill success which attended their schemes of that nature. Several of those, however, who came out in the _Boddingtons_ went off into the woods soon after their landing; and a small party, composed of some desperate characters, about the same time stole a boat from Mr. Schaffer, the settler, with which, as they were not heard of for some days after, it was supposed they had either got out of the harbour, or were lying concealed until, being joined by those who had taken to the woods, they could procure a larger and a safer conveyance from the country.

A slight change took place in the ration this month; the sugar being expended, mola.s.ses was ordered to be served in lieu of that article, in the proportion of a pint of mola.s.ses to a pound of sugar.

On Sunday the 15th died James Nation, a soldier in the New South Wales corps, into which he had entered from the marine detachment. He sunk under an inflammatory complaint brought on by hard drinking. With this person Martha Todd cohabited at the time of her decease, which, as before related, was occasioned by the same circ.u.mstance, and which, together with her death, Nation had been frequently heard to say was the cause of much unhappiness to him.

On Tuesday the 17th the signal was made at the South Head, and about six o'clock in the evening the _Sugar Cane_ transport anch.o.r.ed in the cove from Cork, whence she sailed the 13th of last April, having on board one hundred and ten male and fifty female convicts, with a sergeant's party of the New South Wales corps as a guard. Nothing had happened on board her until the 25th of May, when information was given to Mr. David Wake Bell, the agent on the part of Government, that a mutiny was intended by the convicts, and that they had proceeded so far as to saw off some of their irons. Insinuations were at the same time thrown out, of the probability of their being joined by certain of the sailors and of the guard. The agent, after making the necessary inquiry, thought it indispensable to the safety of the ship to cause an instant example to be made, and ordered one of the convicts who was found out of irons to be executed that night. Others he punished the next morning; and by these measures, as might well be expected, threw such a damp on the spirits of the rest, that he heard no more during the voyage of attempts or intentions to take the ship.

Since the arrival of the _Boddingtons_ many circ.u.mstances respecting the intended mutiny in that ship had been disclosed by the convicts themselves which were not before known. They did not hesitate to say, that all the officers were to have been murdered, the first* mate and the agent excepted, who were to be preserved alive for the purpose of conducting the ship to a port, when they likewise were to be put to death.

[* Mr. Duncan McEver. He belonged to the _Atlantic_, which ship he quitted at Bengal.]