An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales Volume I Part 33

The live stock in the country belonging to individuals was confined to three or four persons, who kept up the price in order to create an interest in the preservation of it. An English cow, in calf by the bull which was brought here in the _Gorgon_, was sold by one officer to another for eighty pounds; and the calf, which proved a male, was sold for fifteen pounds. A mare, brought in the _Britannia_ from the Cape, was valued at forty pounds, and, although aged and defective, was sold twice in the course of a few days for that sum. It must however be remarked, that in these sales stock itself was generally the currency of the country, one kind of animals being commonly exchanged for another.

Labour was also proportionably high. For sawing one hundred feet of timber, in their own time, for individuals, a pair of sawyers demanded seven shillings; a carpenter for his day's work charged three shillings; and for splitting paling for fences, and bringing it in from the woods, they charged from one shilling and six-pence to two shillings and six-pence per hundred. An officer who had an allotment of one hundred acres of land near the town of Sydney having occasion for a hundred thousand bricks to build a dwelling-house, contracted with a brickmaker and his gang, and for that number of bricks paid him the sum of forty-two pounds ten shillings. In the fields, for cutting down the timber of an acre of ground, burning it off, and afterwards hoeing it for corn, the price was four pounds. Five-and-twenty shillings were demanded and paid for hoeing an acre of ground already cleared.

For all this labour, where money was paid, it was taken at its reputed value; but where articles were given in lieu of labour, they were charged according to the prices stated.

The masters of merchantmen, who generally made it their business immediately on their arrival to learn the prices of commodities in the colony, finding them so extravagantly high as before related, thought it not their concern to reduce them to anything like a fair equitable value; but, by asking themselves what must be considered a high price, after every proper allowance for risk, insurance, and loss, kept up the extravagant nominal value which every thing bore in the colony.

CHAPTER XXIV

A murder committed near Parramatta The _Francis_ sails for Norfolk Island Provisions Storm of wind at Parramatta Crops A Settlement fixed at the Hawkesbury Natives A burglary committed Samuel Burt emanc.i.p.ated Death of William Crozier Cook The watches recovered The _Francis_ returns from Norfolk Island Information The New Zealand natives sent to their own country Disturbance at Norfolk Island Court of inquiry at Sydney The _Francis_ returns to Norfolk Island Natives troublesome State of provisions

1794.]

January.] The report that was spread in April last, of a murder having been committed on a watchman belonging to the township of Parramatta, never having been confirmed, either by finding the body among the stalks of Indian corn as was expected, or by any one subsequent circ.u.mstance, it was hoped that the story had been fabricated, and that murder was a crime which for many years to come would not stain the annals of the colony. In proportion, indeed, as our numbers increased, and the inhabitants began to possess those comforts or necessaries which might prove temptations to the idle and the vicious, that high and horrid offence might, in common with others of the same tendency, be expected to exist; but at this moment all thought their persons secure, though their property was frequently invaded. On the 5th of this month, however, John Lewis, an elderly convict, employed to go out with the cattle at Parramatta, was most barbarously murdered. The cattle, having lost their conductor, remained that night in the woods; and when they were found, the absence of Lewis excited an apprehension that some accident had happened to him.

His body was not discovered however until the Wednesday following, when, by the snorting and great uneasiness of the cattle which had been driven out for the purpose, it was perceived lying in a hollow or ravine, into which it had been thrown by those who had butchered him, covered with logs, boughs, and gra.s.s. Some native dogs, led by the scent of human blood, had found it, and by gnawing off both the hands, and the entire flesh from one arm, had added considerably to the horrid spectacle which the body exhibited on being freed from the load of rubbish which had been heaped upon it.

This unfortunate man had imprudently boasted of being worth much money, and that he always carried it with him sewed up in some part of his clothes, to guard against losing it while absent from his hut. If this was true, what he carried with him certainly proved his destruction; if not, the catastrophe must be attributed to his indiscreet declarations.

By the various wounds which he had received, it appeared that he must have well defended himself, and could not have parted with his life until overpowered by numbers; for, though advanced in years, he was a stout, muscular man; and it was from this circ.u.mstance concluded, that more than one person was concerned in the murder of him. To discover, if possible, the perpetrators of this atrocious offence, one or two men of bad characters were taken up and examined, as well as all the people employed about the stockyard: but nothing came out that tended to fix it upon any one of them; and, desirable as it was that they should be brought to that punishment which sooner or later awaited them, it was feared that until some riot or disagreement among themselves should occur, no clue would be furnished that would lead to their detection. The body was therefore brought in from the spot where it had been concealed, about four miles from Parramatta, and buried at that place, after having been very carefully examined by the a.s.sistant-surgeon Mr. Arndell.

In tracing the motives that could lead to this murder, the pernicious vice of _gaming_ presented itself as the first and grand cause. To such excess was this pursuit carried among the convicts, that some had been known, after losing provisions, money, and all their spare clothing, to have staked and lost the very clothes on their wretched backs, standing in the midst of their a.s.sociates as naked, and as indifferent about it, as the unconscious natives of the country. Money was, however, the princ.i.p.al object with these people; for with money they could purchase spirits, or whatever else their pa.s.sions made them covet, and the colony could furnish. They have been seen playing at their favourite games cribbage and all-fours, for six, eight, and ten dollars each game; and those who were not expert at these, instead of pence, tossed up for dollars. Their meetings were scenes of quarrelling, swearing, and every profaneness that might be expected from the dissolute manners of the people who composed them; and to this improper practice must undoubtedly be attributed most of the vices that existed in the colony, pilferings, garden-robberies, burglaries, profanation of the Sabbath, and murder.

On the 5th the _Francis_ sailed for Norfolk Island. The last accounts from thence were dated in March 1793; and as we were uncertain that the supplies which had been sent in the April following by Mr. Bampton had been safely landed, we became extremely anxious to learn the exact state of the settlement there. This information was all the advantage that was expected to be derived from the voyage; for, whatever Mr. King's wants might be, the stores at Sydney were incapable of alleviating them. Little apprehension was however entertained of his being in any need of supplies, as, at the date of his last letter, he reckoned that his crops of wheat and maize would produce more grain than would be sufficient for twelve months consumption.

At this time, an account of the salt provisions remaining in store at Sydney and Parramatta being taken, it appeared, that there were sufficient for only ten weeks at the ration then issued, viz three pounds per man per week. In this situation, every addition that could be made to the ration was eagerly sought after. Wheat was paid to the industrious in exchange for labour; and those who were allowed to subsist independent of the public stores availed themselves of that indulgence to its fullest extent. It might therefore have been expected, that every advantage was taken of such a situation, and that no opportunity would be lost from which any profit could be derived. As an instance of this, one Lane, a person who had been a convict, and who was allowed to support himself how he could, was detected in buying a kangaroo of a man employed by an officer to shoot for him. The game-killer, with the a.s.sistance of six or seven greyhounds, had killed three kangaroos, two of which he brought in; the third he sold or lent to Lane, but said he had cut it up for his dogs.

As most of the officers in the colony were allowed people to shoot for them, it became necessary to make some example of the man who bought, rather than of him who sold; for it was a maxim pretty generally adopted, that the receiver was more culpable than the thief. The lieutenant-governor, therefore, ordered Lane to be punished with one hundred lashes, placed upon the commissary's books for provisions, and sent up to labour at Toongabbie.

About the middle of the month one small cow and a Bengal steer, both private property, were killed, and issued to the non-commissioned officers and privates of two companies of the New South Wales corps. This was but the third time that fresh beef had been tasted by the colonists of this country; once, it may be remembered, in the year 1788, and a second time when the lieutenant-governor and the officers of the settlement were entertained by the Spanish captains. At that time however, had we not been informed that we were eating beef, we should never have discovered it by the flavour; and it certainly happened to more than one Englishman that day, to eat his favourite viand without recognising the taste.*

[* We understood that the Spanish mode of roasting beef, or mutton, was, first to boil and then to brown the joint before the fire.]

The beef that was killed at this time was deemed worth eighteen-pence per pound, and at that price was sold to the soldiers. The two animals together weighed three hundred and seventy-two pounds.

About this time accounts were received from Parramatta of an uncommon storm of wind, accompanied with rain, having occurred there. In its violence it bordered on a hurricane, running in a vein, and in a direction from east to west. The west end of the governor's hut was injured, the paling round some farms which lay in its pa.s.sage were levelled, and a great deal of Indian corn was much damaged. It was not however felt at Sydney, nor, fortunately, at Toongabbie; and was but of short duration; but the rain was represented as having been very heavy.

The climate was well known to be subject to sudden gusts of wind and changes of weather; but nothing of this violence had been before experienced within our knowledge.

It was found that the settlers, notwithstanding the plentiful crops which in general they might be said to have gathered, gave no a.s.sistance to government by sending any into store. Some small quant.i.ty (about one hundred and sixty bushels) indeed had been received; but nothing equal either to the wants or expectations of government. They appeared to be most sedulously endeavouring to get rid of their grain in any way they could; some by brewing and distilling it; some by baking it into bread, and indulging their own propensities in eating; others by paying debts contracted by gaming. Even the farms themselves were pledged and lost in this way; those very farms which undoubtedly were capable of furnishing them with an honest comfortable maintenance for life.

No regular account had been obtained of what these farms had produced; but it was pretty well ascertained, that their crops had yielded at the least nearly seven thousand bushels of wheat. Of the different districts, that of Prospect Hill proved to be the most productive; some grounds there returned thirty bushels of wheat for one. Next to the district of Prospect Hill, the Northern Boundary farms were the best; but many of the settlers at the other districts ascribed their miscarriage more to the late periods at which their grounds were sown, than to any poverty in the soil; and seemed to have no doubt, if they could procure seed-wheat in proper time (that is, to be in the ground in April) and the season were favourable, of being repaid the expenses which they had been at, and of being enabled to supply themselves and families with grain sufficient for their sustenance without any aid from the public stores.

The ground in cultivation on account of government, which had been sown with wheat (three hundred and sixty acres) was found to have produced about the same quant.i.ty as that raised by the settlers. Through the want of flour, the consumption of this article was however very great; and toward the latter end of the month half of the whole produce of the last season (reserving twelve hundred bushels for feed) had been issued. This afforded but a gloomy prospect; for it was much feared, that unless supplies arrived in time, the Indian corn would not be ripe soon enough to save the seed-wheat.

On the 25th, the grain from Bengal being expended, and no more Indian corn of last year's growth remaining that could be served, the public were informed, that from that time no other grain than wheat could be issued; and accordingly on that day the male convicts received for their week's subsistence three pounds of pork and eight pounds of wheat. One pound of wheat more than was issued to the convicts was received on the Monday following by the civil and military.

In this unprovided state of the settlement, the return of Mr. Bampton with his promised cargo of cattle, salt provisions, rice, and dholl, began to be daily and anxiously expected. The completion of the _Britannia's_ voyage was also looked forward to as a desirable event, though to be expected at a somewhat later period; and every shower of rain, as it tended to the benefit of the Indian corn then growing, was received as a sort of presage that at least the seed wheat, the hopes of next season, would be safe. Some very welcome rain had fallen during this month, which considerably revived the Indian corn that was first sown, and improved the appearance of that which had been sown later.

Another division of settlers was this month added to the list of those already established. Williams and Ruse, having got rid of the money which they had respectively received for their farms, were permitted, with some others, to open ground on the banks of the Hawkesbury, at the distance of about twenty-four miles from Parramatta. They chose for themselves allotments of ground conveniently situated for fresh water, and not much burdened with timber, beginning with much spirit, and forming to themselves very sanguine hopes of success. At the end of the month they had been so active as to have cleared several acres, and were in some forwardness with a few huts. The natives had not given them any interruption.

These people, however, though they had not been heard of where it might have been expected they would have proved troublesome, had not been so quiet in the neighbourhood of Parramatta. Between that settlement and Prospect Hill some settlers had been attacked by a party of armed natives and stripped of all their provisions. Reports of this nature had been frequently brought in, and many, perhaps, might have been fabricated to answer a purpose; but there was not a doubt that these people were very desirous of possessing our clothing and provisions; and it was noticed, that as the corn ripened, they constantly drew together round the settlers farms and round the public grounds, for the purpose of committing depredations.

Several gardens were robbed and some houses broken into during this month, the certain effect of a reduced ration. One burglary which was committed was of some magnitude, and deserving of mention. A sergeant of the New South Wales corps having been on guard, on his return to his hut in the morning, had the mortification of finding he had been robbed during his absence of a large quant.i.ty of wearing apparel, and twenty-seven pounds in guineas and dollars; in fact the thief had stripped him of all his moveable property, except only a spare suit of regimentals. The hut stood the first of a new row just without the town, and ought not to have been left without some person to take care of it.

The spoil, no doubt, soon pa.s.sed from one hand to another in the practice of that vice which, as already mentioned, too generally prevailed among the lower cla.s.s of the people in the colony.

At Parramatta some people were taken up and punished, on being detected in issuing to themselves from the stores, where they were employed, a greater proportion of provisions than the ration. This offence had often been committed; and though it was always punished with severity, yet while convicts were employed, it was likely, notwithstanding the utmost vigilance, to continue. Vigilance seemed only to incite to deeper contrivances; and perhaps, though discoveries of this practice had often occurred, yet too many had been guilty of it with impunity, and, being alarmed, had withdrawn in time from the danger.

But very few appeared deserving of confidence; for, sooner or later, wherever it had been placed, either temptation was too strong, or opportunity proved too favourable; and many who had been deemed honest enough to be trusted ended their services by being detected in a breach of that duty which they owed to the public as a return for the faith which had been reposed in them.

This perhaps was owing to the uncertainty of reward for any services that they might render while in the cla.s.s of convicts. As an exception to this rule, however, must be mentioned those people to whom unconditional emanc.i.p.ation had been held out at the expiration of a certain period, if then considered as deserving of his Majesty's mercy as at the time of making the promise. In the hope of this reward they continued to conduct themselves without incurring the slightest censure; and one of them, Samuel Burt, was deemed, through a conscientious and rigid discharge of his duty, to have merited the pardon he looked up to. Accordingly, on the last day of the month he was declared absolutely free. In the instrument of his emanc.i.p.ation it was stated, 'that the remainder of his term of transportation was remitted in consideration of his good conduct in discovering and thereby preventing the intended mutiny on board the _Scarborough_ in her voyage to this country in the year 1790, and his faithful services in the public stores under the commissary since his arrival.' Independent of his integrity as a storekeeper, he was certainly deserving of some distinguishing mark of favour for having been the means of saving the transport in which he came out at the risk of his own life.

At the end of this month nearly four hundred acres were got ready for wheat at Sydney, and every exertion was making to increase that quant.i.ty.

A large number of slops having been prepared, a frock, shirt, and trousers, were served out to each male convict at Sydney and the interior settlements. Shoes were become an article of exceeding scarcity; and the country had hitherto afforded nothing that could be subst.i.tuted for them.

A convict who understood the business of a tanner had shown that the skin of the kangaroo might be tanned; but the animal was not found in sufficient abundance to answer this purpose for any number of people; and the skin itself was not of a substance to be applied to the soling of shoes.

Among the number of deaths this month was that of William Crozier Cook, who expired in consequence of eating two pounds of unground wheat, which was forced, by his immediately drinking a quant.i.ty of water, into the intestines, whence it could not pa.s.s; and though the most active medicines were administered a mortification took place in the lower part of his intestines, which put an end to his life. Cook had, for a length of time after his arrival in this country, been a worthless vagabond; but had latterly appeared sensible how much more to his advantage a different character would prove, and had gained the good word and opinion of the overseers and superintendants under whom he laboured.

February.] On the 4th of this month the watches which had remained so long undiscovered were brought down from Parramatta by Lieutenant Macarthur. By a chain of circ.u.mstances it appeared that they had been stolen by John Bevan, who at the time had broken out of the prison hut at Toongabbie, and coming immediately down to Sydney, in conjunction with Sutton (the man who was tried for stealing Mr. Raven's watch in October 1792) committed the theft, returning with the spoil to his hut at Toongabbie before he had been missed from it by any of the watchmen. He afterwards played at cards with another convict, and exchanged the watches for a nankeen waistcoat and trousers. From this man they got into the possession of two or three other people, and were at last, by great accident, found to be in the possession of one Batty, an overseer, in the thatch of whose hut they, together with ten dollars, were found safe and uninjured. The dollars were supposed to be part of the money stolen at the same time from Walsh at the hospital*, with whom Bevan, some time before, had made acquaintance, winning from him not only a hundred weight of flour, which he had almost starved himself to lay by, but deluding him also out of the secret of his money, with every particular that was necessary to his design of stealing it.

[* This wretched old man did not long survive the loss of his money.]

This was the information given against Bevan by the people through whose hands the watches had pa.s.sed; but as it was entirely unsupported by any corroborating circ.u.mstance, he was discharged without punishment; but Batty and another man, Luke Normington, of whose guilt there was not a doubt, received each a severe corporal punishment by order of the lieutenant-governor. In all the examinations which took place, nothing appeared that affected Sutton, farther than the unsupported a.s.sertions of one or two other convicts; but if Bevan was a.s.sisted by any one, Sutton, from his general character, having already dealt in the article of watches, was very probably his friend on the occasion

The constancy of this wretched young man (Bevan) was astonishing. He most steadily denied knowing any thing of the transaction, treating with equal indifference both promises of rewards and threats of punishment. Crow, who was executed in December last, declared a short time before he suffered, that he had been shown the watches by Bevan in the corn ground between Parramatta and Toongabbie; but as they had never been found in his possession, he resolved on obstinately persisting in the declaration that, however guilty of others, he was at least innocent of this offence; and he thus escaped this time from justice, to be led, perhaps at no very distant period, if not sufficiently warned, with surer step to the gallows that he had so often merited, and in the high road to which he seemed daily to be walking.

On the 12th the _Francis_ returned from Norfolk Island, having been absent five weeks and three days.

The information received from that settlement was, that the _Shah Hormuzear_ and _Chesterfield_ arrived there from this place, on the 2nd day of May last, when, every article of stores and provisions which had been put on board of them being safely landed, both ships sailed for India on the 27th day of the same month; Captain Bampton purposing to attempt making the pa.s.sage between New Holland and New Guinea, that was expected to be found to the northward of Endeavor Straits.

While these ships were off Lord Howe Island, they experienced a heavy gale of wind, in which the _Shah Hormuzear_ lost her topmasts, and the _Chesterfield_ was in much danger from a leak which she sprung. Captain Bampton having, in some bad weather off Norfolk Island, lost his long-boat, he, with the a.s.sistance given him by Lieutenant-governor King, built, in ten days, a very fine one of thirty-two feet keel, with which he sailed, and without which it would not have been quite safe for him to have proceeded on a voyage where much of the navigation lay among islands and shoals, and where part of it had certainly been unexplored.

Mr. King had the satisfaction of stating, that his crops had been abundant, plenty reigning among all descriptions of people in the island.

His wheat was cut, the first of it on the 25th of November last, and the harvest was well got in by Christmas Day. About two thousand bushels were the calculated produce of this crop, which would have been greater had it not, during its growth, been hurt by the want of rain. Of the maize, the first crop (having always two) was gathering while the schooner was there, and, notwithstanding the drought turned out well; from one acre and a quarter of ground, one hundred and six bushels had been gathered; but it was pretty generally established on the island, that thirty-six bushels of maize might be taken as the average produce of an acre of ground.

The superior fertility of the soil at Norfolk Island to that of New South Wales had never been doubted. The following account of last year's crop was transmitted to Lieutenant-governor King:

From November 1792 to November 1793 the crop of maize amounted to 3247 bushels; wheat 1302 bushels; calavances 50 bushels.

Purchased in the above time from settlers and others, at five shillings per bushel 3600 bushels. Reserved by them for seed 3000 bushels of maize; 300 bushels of wheat; 300 bushels of calavances; and 50 tons of potatoes.

Which, together with 305 bushels of maize brought from thence with the detachment of the New South Wales corps at the relief in March 1793, made a total of 10,152 bushels of maize, 1602 bushels of wheat, 350 bushels of calavances, 50 tons of potatoes, raised on Norfolk Island in one twelvemonth, on about two hundred and fifty-six acres of ground.

Of this crop, and of what had been purchased, there remained in the public stores, when the schooner left the island, forty-three weeks maize and wheat; in addition to which Lieutenant-governor King supposed he should have of this season's growth, after reserving five hundred bushels of wheat for seed, sufficient of that article for the consumption of six hundred and ninety-nine persons*, the whole number of people victualled there from the stores for fourteen weeks and a half, at the rate of ten pounds per man per week; and fifty-eight weeks maize at twelve pounds per man per week. He had besides, at the established ration, twelve weeks beef, twenty-nine weeks pork, five weeks mola.s.ses, and thirty weeks oi1 and sugar. The whole forming an abundance that seemed to place the evil hour of want and distress at too great a distance to excite much alarm or apprehension of its occurring there.