An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales Volume I Part 35

[* Saved on the 3rd and 10th of March by issuing fresh pork to the non-commissioned officers and privates of the New South Wales corps, their wives and children, 1803 lbs

There were issued to the above people, fresh pork, 5099 lbs

The hogs that were purchased on this occasion from individuals cost government the sum of 254 19s 6d]

In consequence of these fortunate arrivals, the full ration of salt meat was ordered to be issued; and as soon as part of the cargo was got on sh.o.r.e from the storeship, the deficiency on the last serving days was completed to the full allowance. The last of the wheat was served on the 17th (a proper quant.i.ty being reserved for seed) and on the next provision-day ten pounds of Indian corn were subst.i.tuted instead of the allowance of wheat. Nothing but dire necessity could have induced the gathering and issuing this article in its present unripened state, the whole of it being soft, full of juice, and wholly unfit to grind. Had the settlers, with only a common share of honesty, returned the wheat which they had received from Government to sow their grounds the last season, the reproach which they drew upon themselves, by not stepping forward at this moment to a.s.sist Government, would not have been incurred; but though, to an individual, they all knew the anxiety which every one felt for the preservation of the seed-wheat, yet when applied to, and told (in addition to the sum of ten shillings per bushel) that any quant.i.ty which they might choose to put into the store should be brought from their farms without any expence of carriage to them, they all, or nearly all, pleaded an insufficiency to crop their ground for the ensuing season; a plea that was well known to be made without a shadow of truth. In consequence of this refusal, for their excuses amounted to as much, the lieutenant-governor directed all those settlers*, whose limited time** for being victualled from the public stores had expired, to be struck off the provision list, and left to provide for themselves, a very just punishment for their ingrat.i.tude; for some had been fed and supplied from the colonial stores for more than twelve months beyond the time prescribed for them when they were settled. This indulgence had been continued to them from quarter to quarter on account of bad crops, unfavourable seasons, and the reduced ration, with which all of them, more or less, had had to struggle; and every accommodation had constantly been afforded them which was consistent with the situation of the colony.

It was, however, now seen, that they were not the description of settlers from whom, whatever indulgences they might receive, Government had any a.s.sistance to expect; their princ.i.p.al object was their own immediate interest; and to serve that, they would forget every claim which the public had upon them.

[* Sixty-three in number]

[** Eighteen months]

The small cargo of salt provisions brought by the brig from Bengal was purchased on account of Government for 307 16s; the beef at five-pence and the pork at eight-pence per pound; the remainder of her cargo was purchased by the officers of the civil and military departments. The cargo of the _William_, which arrived in very good order, was all landed, and the ship cleared and discharged from Government employ on the 28th.

The Rev. Mr. Marsden entered on the duties of his function the first Sunday after his arrival, preaching to the military in a barrack prepared for the occasion in the forenoon, and to the convicts at the church erected by Mr. Johnson in the afternoon.

On the day when the _William_ anch.o.r.ed in the cove Buffin's new mill was completed and set to work; and Wilkinson' s was in some forwardness. At first it went rather heavily; but in a few days, with nine men's labour, it ground sixty-three pounds of wheat in seventeen minutes. It must be observed, that not any mill was yet erected in the colony whereat corn was ground for the public, the military as well as the convicts grinding their own grain themselves. Whenever wind or water-mills should be erected, this labour would be saved, and the allowance of wheat or Indian corn be issued ground and dressed.

The late distress of the colony was not found to have made any amendment in the morals of the convicts. Gaming still prevailed among them in its fullest extent; and a theft which was committed at one of these meetings showed how far it was carried. Among those who made a daily practice of gaming was one who, in his situation as an overseer, had given such offence to some of his fellow-prisoners, that a plan was formed to plunder him the first time that he should have a sum worthy of their attention. He was accordingly surrounded when engaged at play, by a party who, watching their opportunity, rushed upon him when he had won a stake of five-and-twenty dollars, and, in the confusion that ensued, secured the whole. He was, however, fortunate enough to seize one of them, with ten of the dollars in his hand, but was not able to recover any more. The man whom he secured proved to be Samuel Wright, who in the month of July last had been reprieved at the foot of the gallows; so soon had he forgotten the terror of that moment. On this circ.u.mstance being reported to the lieutenant-governor, Wright received an immediate corporal punishment.

McKoy, the overseer, confessed that gaming had been for many years his profession and subsistence, though born of honest and reputable parents; and he acknowledged, that but for his pursuit of that vice he should never have visited this country in the situation of a convict.

A better principle showed itself shortly after in Ca-ru-ey, a native youth, who, from long residence among us, had contracted some of our distinctions between good and ill. Being fishing one morning in his canoe near the lieutenant-governor's farm, he perceived some convicts gathering and secreting the Indian corn which grew there; and, knowing that acts of that nature were always punished, he instantly came to the settlement, and gave an account of what he had seen, in time to secure the offenders on the spot, with the corn in their possession.

As he made no secret of what he had done, it was apprehended that some revenge might, if they were punished, be levelled at him on a future opportunity, they were therefore pardoned; but Ca-ru-ey was nevertheless applauded and recompensed for his attention and honesty.

Among other articles of information received by the _William_, we were a.s.sured, that it had been industriously circulated in England, that there was not in this country either gra.s.s for graminivorous animals, or vegetables for the use of man. This report was, however, rather forcibly contradicted by the abundant increase of all descriptions of live stock at this time in the colony, and by the plenty which was to be found in every garden, whether cultivated by the officer or by the convict. A striking instance of this plenty occurred at Parramatta a few days before the arrival of the storeship, when six tons and two hundred weight of potatoes were gathered as the produce of only three quarters of an acre of ground. From the then reduced state of the stores, they were sold for fifty pounds.

Mutton was sold in this month for one shilling and nine-pence per pound.

April.] in the forenoon of Thursday the 3rd of April, the signal was made at the South Head for a sail, and about four o'clock the _Daedalus_ storeship anch.o.r.ed in the cove from the north-west coast of America; but last from Owhyhee, one of the Sandwich Islands, from which place she sailed on the 8th day of February last.

Lieutenant Hanson, on his arrival at Nootka Sound the 8th of last October, found only a letter from Captain Vancouver, directing him to follow the _Discovery_ to another port; between which and Nootka he fortunately met with her and the _Chatham_, and was afterwards obliged to proceed with them to the Sandwich Islands, before Captain Vancouver could take out of the _Daedalus_ the stores which were consigned to his charge.

The harbour of Nootka was still in the hands of the Spaniards, and some jealousy on their part prevented the delivery of the stores from the vessel in any of the Spanish ports on the coast.

Mr. Hanson was informed, that three natives of Whahoo (the island whereat his predecessor in the _Daedalus_, Lieutenant Hergest, with the astronomer, Mr. Gootch, and the seaman were killed) had been delivered up by the chief of the island to Captain Vancouver, for the purpose of being offered as an expiatory sacrifice for those murders; and that they were accordingly, after remaining some short time on board the _Discovery_, taken one by one into a canoe, and put to death alongside that ship by one of their chiefs. A pistol was the instrument made use of on this occasion, which certainly was as extraordinary as unexpected.

The great accommodation which those islands proved to ships trading on the north-west coast of America rendered it absolutely necessary, that the inhabitants should be made to understand that we never would nor could pa.s.s unnoticed an act of such atrocity. With this view Captain Vancouver had demanded of the chief of Whahoo the murderers of Mr. Hergest and his unfortunate companions. It was not supposed that the people sacrificed were the actual perpetrators of these murders; but that an equal number of the natives had been given up as an atonement for the Europeans we had lost.

The native of this country who accompanied Lieutenant Hanson we had the satisfaction of seeing return safe in the _Daedalus_. He had conducted himself with the greatest propriety during the voyage, readily complying with whatever was required of him, and not incurring, in any one instance, the dislike or ill-will of any person on board the ship.

Wherever he went he readily adopted the manners of those about him; and when at Owhyhee, having discovered that favours from the females were to be procured at the easy exchange of a looking-gla.s.s, a nail, or a knife, he was not backward in presenting his little offering, and was as well received as any of the white people in the ship. It was noticed too that he always displayed some taste in selecting the object of his attentions.

The king of Owhyhee earnestly wished to detain him on the island, making splendid offers to Mr. Hanson, of canoes, warlike instruments, and other curiosities, to purchase him; but if Mr. Hanson had been willing to have left him, Collins would not have consented, being very anxious to return to New South Wales.

He did not appear to have acquired much of our language during his excursion; but seemed to comprehend a great deal more than he could find words to express.

On his arrival at Sydney he found his wife, whom he had left in a state of pregnancy, in the possession of another native, a very fine young fellow, who since his coming among us had gone by the name of Wyatt. The circ.u.mstance of his return, and the novelty of his appearance, being habited like one of us, and very clean, drew many of his countrymen about him; and among others his rival, and his wife. Wyatt and Collins eyed each other with indignant sullenness, while the poor wife (who had recently been delivered of a female child, which shortly after died) appeared terrified, and as if not knowing which to cling to as her protector, but expecting that she should be the sufferer, whether ascertained to belong to her former or her present husband. A few days, however, determined the point: her travelled husband shivered a spear with Wyatt, who was wounded in the contest, and the wife became the prize of the victor, who, after thus ascertaining his right by arms, seemed indifferent about the reward, and was soon after seen traversing the country in search of another wife.

Three young gentlemen of the _Discovery_ and _Chatham's_ quarterdecks arrived here in the _Daedalus_, to procure pa.s.sages from hence to England. Among them was the Honourable Thomas Pitt, who on his arrival here first learnt the death of his father, the late Lord Camelford.

Captain Vancouver not having room for all the provisions which were sent him from the public stores of this settlement, the greatest part of them were returned.

While the _Daedalus_ was in the morning standing in for the harbour, the _Arthur_ went out, bound to that part of the world from which she was just arrived, the north-west coast of America. Four convicts whose terms of transportation had expired were permitted to quit the colony in her.

She also took away the carpenter of the _Fairy_, American brig, who had been left on sh.o.r.e dangerously ill when Mr. Rogers sailed, but who had perfectly recovered through the great attention and medical a.s.sistance which he received at the hospital.

The day following the arrival of the _Daedalus_, the _Francis_ schooner returned from Norfolk Island, having been absent five weeks and one day.

In her arrived the Rev. Mr. Bayne, the chaplain of the New South Wales corps, and Mr. Grimes, the deputy-surveyor of lands, with some few other pa.s.sengers.

Lieutenant-governor King's second crop of Indian corn had been so productive, that he was enabled to make an offer of sending five thousand bushels of that article to this colony, if required.

The peace and good order which universally prevailed at Norfolk Island having rendered unnecessary the keeping together the settlers as a militia, they had some time before the arrival of the _Francis_ returned to their several avocations on their respective farms.

Notwithstanding the ill success which had hitherto attended the endeavours of the Irish convicts stationed at Toongabbie and Parramatta to find a way from this country to China, a few of them were again hardy enough to attempt effecting their escape, and getting thither in a small boat, which they took from a settler, and with which they got out of the harbour in the night of the 12th of this month. They had furnished themselves with some provisions; but the wretchedness of their boat must have ensured to them the same end which certainly befel Tarwood and his companions, particularly as it blew a gale of wind the day succeeding their departure. It was at first imagined that they would be heard of at the Hawkesbury; but there could be little doubt of their having perished.

From the settlement on the banks of that river the best reports continued to be received from time to time: every where the settlers found a rich black mould of several feet depth, and one man had in three months planted and dug a crop of potatoes. The natives, however, had given them such interruption, as induced a necessity for firing upon them, by which, it was said, one man was killed.

At Toongabbie, where the Indian corn was growing, their visits and their depredations were so frequent and extensive, that the watchmen stationed for the protection of the corn-grounds were obliged to fire on them, and one party, considerable in number, after having been driven off, returning directly to the plunder, was pursued by the watchmen for several miles, when a contest ensued, in which the natives were worsted, and three were left dead on the spot. The watchmen had so often come in with accounts of this nature, that, apprehensive lest the present transaction should not be credited, they brought in with them, as a testimonial not to be doubted, the head of one of those whom they had slain. With this witness to support them, they told many wonderful circ.u.mstances of the pursuit and subsequent fight, which they stated to have taken place at least fourteen miles from the settlement, and to have been very desperately and obstinately sustained on the part of the natives. It was remarked, however, that not one of the watchmen had received the slightest injury, a circ.u.mstance that threw a shade over their story, which, but for the production of the head, would have been altogether disbelieved.

Whatever might have been the truth, it is certain that a party of natives appeared the following day about the corn grounds, but conducted themselves with a great deal of caution, stationing one of their party upon the stump of a tree which commanded an extensive view of the cultivated grounds, and retreating the instant they perceived themselves to be observed.

From the quant.i.ties of husks and leaves of corn which were found scattered about the dwelling places of these people, their depredations this season must have been very extensive.

At Sydney a large party of natives a.s.sembled for the purpose of burning the body of Carradah, the native mentioned in the transactions of the month of December last, by the name of Midjer Bool. He had been put to death while asleep in the night by some people who were inimical to his tribe; and the natives who witnessed the performance of the last rite a.s.sured us, that when the murderers should be discovered several severe contests would ensue. It was at this time that the rencounter between Collins and Wyatt took place; and some other points of honour which remained unsettled were then determined, not without much violence and bloodshed, though no one was killed.

Cropping the ground with wheat formed the general and most material labour of this month. On the public account nearly four hundred acres were so sown with that essential grain. At this time wheat bore the price of twenty shillings a bushel.

The crops of Indian corn in general turned out very productive. An officer who held an allotment of an hundred acres near Parramatta, from each acre of nineteen, on a light sandy soil, gathered fifty bushels of sh.e.l.led corn; and a patch of Caffre corn, growing in the like soil, produced the same quant.i.ty per acre. This grain had been introduced into our settlement from the Cape of Good Hope by Captain Paterson, and was found to answer well for fattening of stock. No one having attempted to separate the farinaceous part of the grain from the husk, which was of an astringent quality, no judgment had been formed of its utility as a flour; but some who had ground it and mixed the whole together into a paste p.r.o.nounced it to be equal to any preparation of oatmeal

Wilkinson's grinding machine was set in motion this month. It was a walking mill, upon a larger construction than that at Parramatta. The diameter of the wheel in which the men walked was twenty-two feet, and it required six people to work it. Those who had been in both mills (this and Buffin's, which was worked by capstan-bars and nine men) gave the preference to the latter; and in a few days it was found to merit it; for, from the variety and number of the wheels in Wilkinson's machinery, something was constantly wrong about it. Finding, after a fair trial, that it was imperfect, it was taken to pieces; and Buffin was employed to replace it by another mill upon the same principle as that which he had himself constructed; and Wilkinson returned to Parramatta.

An inflammation of the eyes appeared to be a disorder generally prevalent among all descriptions of people at this time. It raged at first among children; but when got into a house, hardly any person in it escaped the complaint. It was accounted for by the variable and unsettled weather which we had during this month.

CHAPTER XXVI

The _William_ sails Cultivation Excursion in search of a river A storeship arrives Captain Bampton Full ration The _Britannia_, _Speedy_, and _Halcyon_ arrive The _Indispensable_ and _Halcyon_ sail The _f.a.n.n.y_ arrives from Bombay Information Two convicts executed The _Hope_ sails

May.] Early in this month the _William_ sailed on her fishing voyage to the coast of Peru. Mr. Folger, her master, purposed trying what success might be met with on this coast for a few weeks, it being the wish of his owners in consequence of the reports brought home by some of the whaling ships which were here in 1792. If he should be at all fortunate, he intended to return to this port with the account; it being the anxious wish of every officer in the colony to hear of any thing that was likely to make a return to the mother country for the immense sums which must annually have been expended on this settlement.

Some dispatches and returns being sent by this ship, it appeared, that here and at Norfolk Island were existing, at the latter end of last month, four thousand four hundred and fourteen persons of all descriptions, men, women, and children. Estimating the daily expense of these at two shillings a head, (a fair calculation, when every article of provisions, clothing, stores, freight of ships, allowance for civil and military establishments, damaged cargoes, etc., etc. was considered,) it will be found to amount annually to the sum of one hundred and sixty-one thousand one hundred and eleven pounds; an expense that called loudly for every exertion toward easing the mother country of such a burden, by doing away our dependence on her for many of the above articles, or by affording a return that would be equal to some part of this expence.

Separated as we were from Europe, constantly liable to accidents interrupting our supplies, which it might not always be possible to guard against or foresee, how cheering, how grateful was it to every thinking mind among us, to observe the rapid strides we were making toward that desirable independence! The progress made in the cultivation of the country insured the consequent increase of live stock; and it must be remembered, that the colony had been supplied with no other grain than that raised within itself since the 16th day of last December.

The permission given to officers to hold lands had operated powerfully in favour of the colony. They were liberal in their employment of people to cultivate those lands; and such had been their exertions, that it appeared by a survey taken in the last month by Mr. Alt, that nine hundred and eighty-two acres had been cleared by them since that permission had been received. Mr. Alt reported, that there had been cleared, since Governor Phillip's departure in December 1792, two thousand nine hundred and sixty-two acres and one quarter; which, added to seventeen hundred and three acres and a half that were cleared at that time, made a total of four thousand six hundred and sixty-five acres and three quarters of cleared ground in this territory. It must be farther remarked in favour of the gentlemen holding ground, that in the short period of fifteen months*, the officers, civil and military, had cleared more than half the whole quant.i.ty of ground that had been cleared by government and the settlers, from the establishment of the colony to the date of the governor's departure. The works of government, however vigilantly attended to, always proceeded slowly, and never with that spirit and energy that are created by interest.