An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales Volume I Part 40

On the 4th the _Britannia_ returned from the Cape of Good Hope, having been absent six months and three days. Mr. Raven brought alive to his employers, one stallion, twenty-nine mares, three fillies, and twelve sheep. He sailed from the Cape with forty mares on board; but those that died were the worst, and had not been kept up long enough on dry food before they were embarked.

It was evident, on visiting the ship, that every attention had been paid to their accommodation; but horses were generally supposed better calculated than other cattle to endure the weather usually met with between the Cape and this country*.

[* It may be remembered, that in a former voyage to the Cape on a similar errand, she lost twenty-nine cows.]

We had the gratification of hearing that our fleet under Earl Howe had been victorious in a gallant and severe action with the enemy.

On the 15th, when anxiously expecting an arrival from England, we saw Mr. Dell come to anchor in the cove from Norfolk Island.

Though this arrival proved a disappointment to most of us, yet the information we received by it was rather interesting. We now learned, that Mr. Dell had been at New Zealand, where he pa.s.sed three months in the river named by Captain Cook the Thames, employed in cutting spars, for the purpose (as was conjectured here at the time of his departure) of freighting such ship as might arrive from India on Mr. Bampton's account.

In the course of that time they cut down upwards of two hundred very fine trees, from sixty to one hundred and forty feet in length, fit for any use that the East India Company's ships might require. The longest of these trees measured three feet and a half in the b.u.t.t, and differed from the Norfolk Island pines in having the turpentine in the centre of the tree instead of between the bark and the wood. From the natives they received very little interruption, being only upon one occasion obliged to fire on them. Like other uncivilised people, these islanders saw no crime in theft, and stole some axes from the people employed on sh.o.r.e, gratifying thereby their predilection for iron, which, strange as it may sound to us, they would have preferred to gold. Unfortunately, iron was too precious even here to part with, unless for an equivalent; and it became necessary to convince them of it. Two men and one woman were killed, the seamen who fired on them declaring (in their usual enlarged style of relation) that they had driven off and pursued upwards of three thousand of these cannibals. They readily parted with any quant.i.ty of their flax, bartering it for iron. As the valuable qualities of this flax were well known, it was not uninteresting to us to learn, that so small a vessel as the _Fancy_ had lain at an anchor for three months in the midst of numerous and warlike tribes of savages, without any attempt on their part to become the masters; and that an intercourse might safely and advantageously be opened between them and the colonists of New South Wales, whenever proper materials and persons should be sent out to manufacture the flax, if the governor of that country should ever think it an object worthy of his attention.

From New Zealand the _Fancy_ proceeded to Norfolk Island, and now came hither in the hope of meeting with, or hearing of Mr. Bampton.

From that settlement we gained the following information:

The _Salamander_ touched there, and the _Resolution_ appeared off the island, but had no communication with the sh.o.r.e.

A heavy gale of wind, accompanied with a slight shock of the earth, had done considerable damage, washing away a very useful wharf and crane at Cascade, but which the governor meant immediately to replace.

The produce of the wheat this season on government's account amounted to three thousand bushels, and that of settlers to fifteen hundred. The Indian corn promised a very plentiful crop; but the settlers were much discouraged by their bills of the last year remaining still unpaid. Much of that corn was obliged to be surveyed, and two thousand bushels had been condemned.

Swine were increasing so rapidly on Phillip Island, now stocked by government, that Mr. King thought he should be able for some time to issue fresh pork during four days in the week. The flour was expended; of salt meat there was a sufficiency in store for eight months. The whole number of persons on the island amounted to nine hundred and forty-five.

A convict well known in this settlement, Benjamin Ingraham, being detected in the act of housebreaking, put an end to his own existence by hanging himself, thus terminating by his own hand a life of wretchedness and villany.

On the 17th St. Patrick found many votaries in the settlement. Some Cape brandy lately imported in the _Britannia_ appeared to have arrived very seasonably; and libations to the saint were so plentifully poured, that at night the cells were full of prisoners.

Settlers, and other persons who had Indian corn to dispose of, were this month informed, that they would receive five shillings per bushel for all they might bring to the public stores. They were likewise told, that a preference would be given to those who had disposed of their wheat to government.

On the 23rd the _Experiment_ sailed for India. Mr. McClellan had been with his vessel to the Hawkesbury, where he had taken in sixty large logs of the tree which we had named the cedar. He had also purchased some of the mahogany of this country. Whether cedar and mahogany were or were not to be readily procured at Bengal, ought to have been well known to this gentleman before he put himself to the trouble, delay, and expence of procuring such a quant.i.ty*; but it was here generally looked upon as a speculation that would not produce him much profit.

[* He was to allow one hundred pounds for as many trees; but we understood that it was to be in the way of barter with articles, sugar, spirits, etc.]

On the day of his sailing, suspecting (as was reported) some design to seize his vessel, he sent on sh.o.r.e three people whom he had shipped here.

They rendezvoused at a hut in the town occupied by one John Chapman Morris; and, on searching it, in the bed of one of them were found a dozen of new Indian shirts marked D. W.; twenty-two new pulicate handkerchiefs; and three pieces of striped gingham. On the possessor being questioned, he said, that they were sold to him while he was at Norfolk Island by the steward of Captain Manning's ship, the _Pitt_. As this was a very improbable story, the house they were in was ordered by the commanding officer to be pulled down. The property, having been disclaimed by Mr. McClennan, was lodged with the provost-marshal; and the parties given to understand, that a reference would be made to Norfolk Island by the first opportunity.

On the 26th, some of our people witnessed an extraordinary transaction which took place among the natives at the brick-fields. A young man of the name of Bing-yi-wan-ne, well known in the settlement, being detected in the crisis of an amour with Maw-ber-ry, the companion of another native, Ye-ra-ni-be Go-ru-ey, the latter fell upon him with a club, and being a powerful man, and of superior strength, absolutely beat him to death. Bing-yi-wan-ne had some friends, who on the following day called Ye-ra-ni-be to an account for the murder; when, the affair being conducted with more regard to honour than justice, he came off with only a spear-wound in his thigh.

The farmers began gathering their Indian corn about the latter end of this month. The weather during the former and latter part of it was wet.

About the time of the equinox, the tides in the cove were observed to be very high.

On the 28th Thomas Webb, a settler, who had removed from his farm at Liberty Plains to another on the banks of the Hawkesbury, was dangerously wounded there, while working on his grounds by some of the wood natives, who had previously plundered his but. About the same time a party of these people threw a spear at some soldiers who were going up the river in a small boat. All these unpleasant circ.u.mstances were to be attributed to the ill treatment the natives had received from the settlers.

At Prospect Hill a woman was bitten by a snake; but by the timely application of some volatile salts by Mr. Irving, her life was saved.

April.] It was determined to let the Toongabbie Hills remain fallow for a season, they being reported to be worn out. Other ground, which had been prepared, was now sown; a spot called the Ninety Acres, and the hills between Parramatta and Toongabbie.

On the 15th, a criminal court was a.s.sembled for the trial of John Anderson and Joseph Marshall, settlers; and John Hyams, Joseph Dunstill, Richard Watson, and Morgan Bryan, convicts; for a rape committed on the body of one Mary Hartley, at the Hawkesbury. The court was obliged to acquit the prisoners, owing to glaring contradiction in the witnesses, no two of them, though several were examined, agreeing in the same point.

But as such a crime could not be pa.s.sed with impunity, they were recommitted, and on the 22nd tried for an a.s.sault, of which being very clearly convicted, the two settlers and Morgan Bryan were sentenced to receive each five hundred lashes, and the others three hundred each; of which sentence they received one half, and were forgiven the remainder.

This was a most infamous transaction; and, though the sufferer was of bad character, would have well warranted the infliction of capital punishment on one of the offenders, if the witnesses had not prevaricated in their testimony. They appeared to have cast off all the feelings of civilised humanity, adopting as closely as they could follow them the manners of the savage inhabitants of the country. One prisoner, John Rayner, was also tried for a burglary, and being convicted received sentence of death.

On the 29th, a liberal allowance of slops was issued to the male and female convicts in the different settlements, among which were some soap to the men, and some thread, tape, and soap to the women.

A shed for the purpose of receiving their Indian corn was this month begun by the settlers at the river, they and their servants bringing in the materials, and government supplying the carpenters, tools, nails, etc.

The farmers now every where began putting their wheat into the ground, except at the river, where they had scarcely made any preparations, consuming their time and substance in drinking and rioting; and trusting to the extreme fertility of the soil, which they declared would produce an ample crop at any time without much labour. So silly and thoughtless were these people, who were thus unworthily placed on the banks of a river which, from its fertility and the effect of its inundations, might not improperly be termed the _Nile_ of New South Wales.

May.] From the reduced state of the salted provisions, it became necessary (such had often been the preamble of an order) to diminish the ration of that article weekly to each person, and half the beef and half the pork was stopped at once. In some measure to make this great deduction lighter, three pints of peas were added. This circ.u.mstance induced the commanding officer, on the day this alteration took place, to hire the _Britannia_ to proceed to India for a cargo of salted provisions.

Supplies might arrive before she could return; but the war increased the chances against us. He therefore took her up at fifteen shillings and sixpence per ton per month; and, in order to save as much salt meat as was possible, he directed the commissary to purchase such fresh pork as the settlers and others might bring in good condition to the store, issuing two pounds of fresh, in lieu of one of salt meat. During the time this order continued, a barrow was killed and part sent to the store, which weighed five hundred pounds, and a sow which weighed three hundred and thirty-six pounds. They had both been fed a considerable time* on Indian corn, and, according to the rate they sold at (the pork one shilling per pound, and the corn five shillings per bushel) could neither of them have repaid the expence of their feed.

[* The barrow two years and a half, and the sow about two years.]

On the 21st the colonial schooner returned from the Hawkesbury, bringing upwards of eleven hundred bushels of remarkably fine Indian corn from the store there. The master again reported his apprehensions that the navigation of the river would be obstructed by the settlers, who continued the practice of falling and rolling trees into the stream. He found five feet less water at the store-wharf than when he was there in February last, owing to the dry weather which had for some time past prevailed.

At that settlement an open war seemed about this time to have commenced between the natives and the settlers; and word was received over-land, that two people were killed by them; one a settler of the name of Wilson, and the other a freeman, one William Thorp, who had been left behind from the _Britannia_, and had hired himself to this Wilson as a labourer. The natives appeared in large bodies, men, women, and children, provided with blankets and nets to carry off the corn, of which they appeared as fond as the natives who lived among us, and seemed determined to take it whenever and wherever they could meet with opportunities. In their attacks they conducted themselves with much art; but where that failed they had recourse to force, and on the least appearance of resistance made use of their spears or clubs. To check at once, if possible, these dangerous depredators, Captain Paterson directed a party of the corps to be sent from Parramatta, with instructions to destroy as many as they could meet with of the wood tribe (Be-dia-gal); and, in the hope of striking terror, to erect gibbets in different places, whereon the bodies of all they might kill were to be hung. It was reported, that several of these people were killed in consequence of this order; but none of their bodies being found, (perhaps if any were killed they were carried off by their companions,) the number could not be ascertained. Some prisoners however were taken, and sent to Sydney; one man, (apparently a cripple,) five women, and some children. One of the women, with a child at her breast, had been shot through the shoulder, and the same shot had wounded the babe. They were immediately placed in a hut near our hospital, and every care taken of them that humanity suggested. The man was said, instead of being a cripple, to have been very active about the farms, and instrumental in some of the murders which had been committed. In a short time he found means to escape, and by swimming reached the north sh.o.r.e in safety; whence, no doubt, he got back to his friends. Captain Paterson hoped, by detaining the prisoners and treating them well, that some good effect might result; but finding, after some time, that coercion, not attention, was more likely to answer his ends, he sent the women back.

While they were with us, the wounded child died, and one of the women was delivered of a boy, which died immediately. On our withdrawing the party, the natives attacked a farm nearly opposite Richmond Hill, belonging to one William Rowe, and put him and a very fine child to death, the wife, after receiving several wounds, crawled down the bank, and concealed herself among some reeds half immersed in the river, where she remained a considerable time without a.s.sistance: being at length found, this poor creature, after having seen her husband and her child slaughtered before her eyes, was brought into the hospital at Parramatta, where she recovered, though slowly, of her wounds. In consequence of this horrid circ.u.mstance, another party of the corps was sent out; and while they were there the natives kept at a distance. This duty now became permanent; and the soldiers were distributed among the settlers for their protection; a protection, however, that many of them did not merit.

Pemulwy, or some of his party, were not idle about Sydney; they even ventured to appear within half a mile of the brickfield huts, and wound a convict who was going to a neighbouring farm on business. As one of our most frequent walks from the town was in that direction, this circ.u.mstance was rather unpleasant; but the natives were not seen there again.

On Sunday the 31st, about one o'clock, the signal was made at the South Head for a sail; and about five there anch.o.r.ed in the cove the _Endeavour_, a ship of eight hundred tons from Bombay, under the command of Mr. Bampton, having on board one hundred and thirty-two head of cattle, a quant.i.ty of rice, and the other articles of the contract engaged by Lieutenant-governor Grose, except the salt provisions. She had been eleven weeks from Bombay.

The cattle arrived, in general, in good condition; and Mr. Bampton had been very successful in his care of them. He embarked one hundred and thirty at Bombay, out of which he lost but one cow, and that died the morning before his arrival.

On visiting the ship, the sight was truly gratifying; the cattle were ranged on each side of the gun-deck, fore and aft, and not confined in separate stalls; but so conveniently stowed, that they were a support to each other. They were well provided with mats, and were constantly cleaned; and when the ship tacked, the cattle which were to leeward were regularly laid with their heads to windward, by people (twenty in number) particularly appointed to look after them, independent of any duty in the ship. The grain which was their food was, together with their water, regularly given to them, and the deck they stood on was well aired, by scuttles in the sides, and by wind sails.*

[* These circ.u.mstances are mentioned so particularly, in the hope that they may prove useful hints to any persons intending, or who may be in future employed, to convey cattle from India, or any other part of the world, to New South Wales.]

Of this number of cattle forty were for draught, sixty for breeding, and the remainder calves; but some of them so large, as to be valued and taken at fifteen guineas per head.

On their landing, we were concerned to find that many of the draught cattle were very aged; they were, it was true, in health; but younger animals undoubtedly ought to have been procured; for of little use could toothless, old, and blind beasts be to us.

At the settlement at the Hawkesbury, a woman who had been drinking was found dead in her husband's arms. Webb the settler, who was wounded in March last, died; and one settler (Rowe) and his child were killed in this month.

June.] On the 4th of this month, being the anniversary of his Majesty's birth, the commissary issued to each of the non-commissioned officers and privates of the New South Wales corps, one pound of fresh pork and half a pint of spirits; and to all other people victualled from the store one gill each. At noon the regiment fired three volleys; and at one o'clock the _Britannia_ and _Fancy_ twenty-one guns each in honour of the day.

Preparatory to the departure of the _Britannia_, some returns were procured, which were necessary to be transmitted with the dispatches then making up. Among others it appeared, that the following quant.i.ty of ground had been this season sown with wheat: viz.

Acres On account of government at and about Parramatta 340 Individuals at and about ditto 1214 Individuals at the River* 548 Individuals at and about Sydney 618 Total 2721

[* This was the account given by the settlers; but their conduct gave little room to believe they had been so industrious: they certainly ought to have had a greater quant.i.ty.]

On the 18th the _Britannia_ sailed for India. As the state of the settlement at the time of her departure required every exertion to be made in procuring an immediate supply of provisions, Mr. Raven was directed to repair to Batavia, to procure there if possible a cargo of European salted meat. The necessity of his immediate return was so urgent, that if he found on his arrival that only half a cargo could be got, he was to fill up the remainder of the stowage with rice and sugar, and make the best of his way back. If salted provisions were not to be got at Batavia, he was to proceed to Calcutta. Should circ.u.mstances run so much against us, as to cause his failure at both these ports, Mr. Raven was at liberty to return by way of the Cape of Good Hope, as provisions were at any rate to be procured, if possible.

On the 21st, the _Fancy_ sailed for Norfolk Island, taking a cargo of rice and dholl for the use of that settlement; the Rev. Mr. Marsden also embarked in her to marry and baptise such as stood in need of those rites.

On the 29th the colonial schooner brought another cargo of Indian corn (one thousand one hundred and twelve bushels) from the Hawkesbury. For want of storehouse room, great quant.i.ties were left lying before the door, exposed to, and suffering much by the weather. As it had not been measured or received by the store-keeper, the loss fell upon the owners.

The cattle lately arrived seemed to suffer by their change of climate; one cow and several calves died; perhaps as much from mismanagement, as by the weather; for, with very few exceptions, it was impossible to select from among the prisoners, or those who had been such, any who would feel an honest interest in executing the service in which they were employed. They would pilfer half the grain entrusted to their care for the cattle; they would lead them into the woods for pasturage, and there leave them until obliged to conduct them in; they would neither clean them nor themselves. Indolent, and by long habit worthless, no dependance could be placed on them. In every instance they endeavoured to circ.u.mvent; and whenever their exertions were called for, they first looked about them to discover how those exertions might be turned to their own advantage. Could it then be wondered at, if little had been done since our establishment? and must it not rather excite admiration to see how much had been done? Whatever was to be seen was the effect of the most unremitting, and perhaps degrading vigilance on the part of those in whom the executive power had been from time to time vested, and of the interest that many individuals had felt in raising this country from its original insignificance to some degree of consequence.