esculent plant that could be found in the country was procured for
them--wild celery, spinach, and parsley fortunately grew in abundance.
Those who were in health, as well as the sick, were glad to introduce
this wholesome addition to their ration of salt meat.
The public stock, consisting of one bull, four cows, one bull-calf,
one stallion, three mares, and three colts, were landed and left to
crop the pasturage of the little farm that had been formed at the head
of an adjoining cove, and which had been placed under the direction of
a man brought out for the purpose by the Governor.
Some ground having been dug over and prepared near His Excellency's
house on the south side, the plants brought from Rio de Janeiro and
from the Cape were planted, and the colonists soon had the
satisfaction of seeing the grapes, figs, oranges, pears, and
apples--in a word, the best fruits of the Old World--taking root and
establishing themselves in this their New World.
As soon as the hurry and turmoil of disembarkation had subsided, the
Governor caused His Majesty's commission appointing him to be
Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief of New South Wales and its
dependencies, to be publicly read, and he then addressed the convicts,
assuring them that "he would be ever ready to show approbation and
encouragement to those who proved themselves worthy of them by good
conduct and attention to orders; while, on the other hand, such as were
determined to act in opposition to propriety, and observe a contrary
conduct, would inevitably meet with the punishment they deserved."
The convicts from the first gave much trouble. They secreted the tools,
so as to avoid being compelled to work, and it was found almost
impossible to get work out of them, as there was a deficiency of proper
men to set over them. Those who were so placed were for the most part
also convicts, men who by their conduct during the voyage had
recommended themselves, and these had been appointed foremen over the
rest, but it was soon discovered that they lacked the authority
requisite. The sailors from the transports, though repeatedly forbidden
to do so and frequently punished, persisted in bringing spirits on shore
every night, and drunkenness was often the consequence.
Before the month of February was half through, a plot among the convicts
to rob the store was discovered. This was the more unpardonable in that
the rations given out to the convicts were precisely the same as those
served to the soldiers. Each male convict received as his weekly
portion 7 lb. biscuits, 1 lb. flour, 7 lb. beef, 4 lb. pork, 3 pints of
peas, 6 oz. of butter; the women received one-third less.
The ringleaders were charged before a Court that was summoned. One was
hanged, another reprieved on condition of becoming the public
executioner; the rest had milder sentences.
The Governor having received instructions to establish another
settlement on Norfolk Island, the _Supply_ sailed for that place in
the midst of February under the command of Lieutenant King of the
_Sirius_, named by Captain Phillips superintendent and commandant of
the settlement to be formed there. Lieutenant King took with him one
surgeon, one petty officer, two private soldiers, two persons who
pretended to have some knowledge of flax-dressing, and nine male and
six female convicts. This little party was to be landed with tents,
clothing, implements of husbandry, tools for dressing flax, etc., and
provisions for six months, before the expiration of which time it was
intended to send them a fresh supply.
Norfolk Island was to be settled with a view to the cultivation of
flax, which at the time when the island was discovered by Captain Cook
was found growing most luxuriantly where he had landed; this was the
_Phormi tenax_, New Zealand flax.
Mr. King, previous to his departure for the new settlement, was sworn
in as a Justice of Peace, and was empowered to punish such petty
offences as might be committed among the settlers; capital crime being
reserved for the cognizance of the Criminal Court of Judicature,
established at Sydney by Governor Phillips.
The _Supply_ reached Norfolk Island on February 29th, but for five
succeeding days was not able to effect a landing, being prevented by
a surf that was breaking with violence on a reef that lay across the
principal bay. Lieutenant King had nearly given up all hopes of being
able to land, when a small opening was discovered in the reef wide
enough to admit a boat. Through this he succeeded in passing safely,
along with his people and stores. When landed, he could nowhere find a
space clear for pitching a tent, and he had to cut through an almost
impenetrable jungle before he could encamp himself and his people.
Of the stock he carried with him, he lost the only she-goat he had,
and one ewe. He had named the bay wherein he landed and planted his
settlement, Sydney; and had given the names of Phillip and Nepean to
two small islands situated at a small distance from it.
The soil of Norfolk Island was ascertained to be very rich, but Sydney
Bay was exposed to the southerly winds, which drove the surf furiously
over the reef. The _Supply_ lost one of her hands, who was drowned in
attempting to pass through the reef. There was a small bay on the
further side of the island, but it was at a considerable distance from
the settlement.
On February 14th, 1789, Lieutenant Ball sailed for Norfolk Island in
the _Golden Grove_ with provisions and convicts, twenty-one male, six
female convicts, and three children; of the latter two were to be
placed under Lieutenant King's special care. They were of different
sexes; the boy, Parkinson, was about three years of age, and had lost
his mother on the voyage to Botany Bay; the girl was a year older and
had a mother in the colony, but as she was a woman of abandoned
character, the child was taken from her, to save it from the ruin
which otherwise would inevitably have befallen it. These children were
to be instructed in reading, writing, and husbandry. The Commandant
was directed to cause five acres of ground to be allotted and
cultivated for their benefit.
In March, the little colony in Norfolk Island was threatened with an
insurrection. The convicts plotted the capture of the island and the
seizure of Mr. King's person. They had chosen the day when this was to
be effected, the first Saturday after the arrival of any ship in the
bay, except the _Sirius_. They had selected this day, as it had for
some time been Mr. King's custom on Saturdays to visit a farm he had
established at a little distance from the settlement, and the military
generally chose that day for bringing in the cabbage-palm from the
woods. Mr. King was to be secured on his way to the farm. A message,
in the Commandant's name, was to be sent to Mr. Jamison, the surgeon,
who was to be seized as soon as he got into the woods; and the
sergeant and the party of soldiers were to be treated in the same
manner. These being all properly disposed of, a signal was to be made
to the ship in the bay to send her boat on shore, the crew of which
were to be made prisoners on landing; and two or three of the
insurgents were to go off in a boat belonging to the island, and
inform the commanding officer that the ship's boat had been stove on
the beach, and that the Commandant, King, requested that another might
be sent on shore. This also was to be captured; and then, as the last
act in this plot, the ship was to be taken, in which they designed to
proceed to Otaheite, and there establish a colony.
The plot was revealed to a seaman of the _Sirius_, who lived with Mr.
King as a gardener, by a female convict who cohabited with him. On
being acquainted with the circumstances, the Commandant took such
measures as appeared to him necessary to defeat the object of the
plotters; and several who were concerned in the scheme were arrested
and confessed the share they were to have had in the execution of it.
Mr. King had hitherto, from the peculiarity of his situation--secluded
from society, and confined to a small speck in the vast ocean, with
but a handful of people--drawn them around him, and had treated them
in a kindly and even confidential and affectionate manner; but now he
saw that these felons were too ingrained with vice to appreciate such
treatment, and one of his first steps was to clear the ground as far
as was possible round the settlement, that future villainy might not
find a shelter in the woods. To this truly providential circumstance
many of the colonists were afterwards indebted for their lives in an
outbreak that took place after he had quitted the island.
At this time there were on the island 16 free people, 51 male and 23
female convicts, and 4 children.
In June, 1789, Lieutenant Creswell was sent with 14 privates of the
Marines to Norfolk Island, and with a written order from His
Excellency requiring Creswell to take upon himself the direction and
execution of the authority invested in Lieutenant King, in the event
of any accident happening to the latter.
In March, 1790, 116 male and 68 female convicts were sent to Norfolk
Island and 27 children. Major Ross was appointed to supersede King;
both the _Sirius_ and the _Supply_ arrived, but unhappily the former
ran upon the reef on the 19th April. All the officers and people were
saved, being dragged on shore through the surf on a grating.
King returned to New South Wales in the _Supply_. There had been
disaster and distress in the colony there. The sheep had been stolen and
the cattle lost in the woods, and these were not found till 1795, after
they had been lost for seven years, and they were then found grazing on
a remote clearing, and had increased to a surprising degree.
It was now determined that Lieutenant King should return to England
and report progress. A Dutch vessel was hired to take him and the
officers and men of the _Sirius_ home. He sailed in the _Batavia_ in
April, 1790, and arrived in England December 20th, 1790.
Philip Gidley King was appointed Governor of New South Wales,
September, 1800, and held that appointment till 15th August, 1806,
when his health failing he returned to England, and died at Lower
Tooting, Surrey, 3rd September, 1808.
He was the father of Rear-Admiral Philip Parker King, who was born on
Norfolk Island, 13th December, 1791, after his father had left for
England. He entered the Royal Navy as first-class volunteer in 1807,
midshipman in 1809, lieutenant in 1814. He married Harriet, daughter
of Christopher Lethbridge, of Launceston, and died at Sydney 25th
February, 1856, and was buried at Parramatta beside his mother, who
had been laid there many years before, not having come to England.
There is no record as to who and what she was.
For information relative to Philip Gidley King his Diary may be
consulted in John Hunter's _Historical Journal of the Transactions at
Port Jackson and Norfolk Island_, 1795; see also David Collins's
_Account of the English Colony of New South Wales_, 1798-1802.
HICKS OF BODMIN
William Robert Hicks was born at Bodmin on 1st April, 1808--not to be an
April fool himself, but to be a right merry jester, and not infrequently
to make fools of others. He was the son of a schoolmaster, and he, Sir
William Molesworth, of Pencarrow, and Colonel Hamley were educated
together for a while in the school of his father.
William Robert became Clerk of the Board of Guardians, Clerk of the
Highway Board, and Governor of the County Lunatic Asylum. He was a man
of many parts, a good mathematician, a clear-headed and cool man of
business, a musician, who could play on the violin and play it well.
But he was noted above everything else as a humorist.
He was a short man and inordinately stout, weighing sixteen stone. He
had a broad, flexible, somewhat flabby face, with a pair of twinkling
grey eyes, a short nose, somewhat protruding thick under lip, and
double chin that was very pronounced, and whiskers. What was
noticeable in Hicks's face was its flexibility. He possessed the art
and the power to tell his story with his countenance as with his
voice. Indeed, the alterations of mood in his face were like a musical
accompaniment to a song. He was thought the best story-teller of his
day; was known as such in Cornwall and Devon, but was not so well
appreciated in London, where the peculiar dry humour of the West, as
well as the dialect, did not appeal to ordinary hearers as they do in
the two Western Counties. One of his many Cornish friends once took
Hicks up to town and dined him at his club, thinking that he would
keep the table in a roar. But it was not so. His stories fell somewhat
flat, and that damped his spirits and he subsided.
One of Hicks's earliest and best friends was George Wightwick, the
architect, born at Mold in Flintshire in 1802, who set up as architect
in Plymouth in 1829, and was employed to build additions to Bodmin
Gaol in 1842 and 1847. He was author of _The Palace of Architecture_,
published in 1840. And though he was an excellent _raconteur_, second
only to Hicks, he was a most egregiously bad architect. Yet, strangely
enough, Mr. Wightwick supposed himself to be enlightened in the matter
of Gothic architecture, and in 1835 published in _Loudon's
Architectural Magazine_ "A few observations on reviving taste for
pointed Architecture, with an illustrated description of a chapel just
erected at Bude Haven under the direction of the author."
Wightwick it was who had the merit of discovering Hicks and of
introducing him to notables in Devon and Cornwall, for, miserable
architect though he was, he had got the ear of the public in the West
as a man of charming manners and teeming with anecdote. Through him
Hicks obtained access into many a country house, where they would
sing, accompanying themselves on the violin, and tell stories.
Hicks was made Governor of Bodmin Asylum in 1848, and found the old
barbarous system of treatment of the insane in full swing. He at once
adopted gentle methods and in a short while radically changed the
entire mode of treatment, with markedly good results.
[Illustration: WILLIAM R. HICKS]
One poor fellow, whom he found chained in a dark cell on a bed of straw
as a dangerous lunatic, he nearly cured by kindly treatment. As the
fellow showed indications of great shrewdness and wit, Hicks released
him and made much of him. A gentleman on a visit to the asylum once said
to the lunatic, "I hear, man, that you are Hicks's fool."
"Aw," replied he; "I zee you do your awn business in that line."
He was once asked, "Whither does this path go, my man?" He answered
readily, "Zure I cannot tell 'ee. I've knawed un bide here these last
twenty year."
He was sitting on the high wall of the asylum that commanded the road
for some distance, with a turnpike at the bottom of the hill. The
company of a circus passed by, with the various horses. As the manager
rode past, the lunatic said to him, "'Ow much might 'ee pay turnpike
for they there spekkady hosses?" "Oh," said the manager, "the same as
for the others." "Do 'ee now?" said the man on the wall. "Well to be
zure; my vather 'ad a spekkady hoss that never paid no turnpike. They
there sparky (speckled) hosses don't pay no turnpikes here."
"Bless my life," said the manager; "I am much obliged to you for
informing me of the fact. So, sir, I am to understand that piebald
horses are exempt from paying at the toll-gate?"
"What I zed I bides by. They there spekkady hosses never pay no
turnpikes here in Cornwall. What they may do elsewhere, I can't zay."
The lunatic watched the cavalcade proceed down the hill, and when it
reached the turnpike, he enjoyed watching a lively altercation going
on between the toll-taker and the manager. Presently the latter came
galloping back, very hot and angry.
"What do you mean by telling me that in Cornwall piebald horses pay no
turnpike?"
"Right it is so--cos _you_ have to pay it vor 'un," said the man and
stepped out of reach inside the wall.
One day this same man was put to watch a raving maniac, who, for his
own safety, when the fit was on him, used to be put in a padded room.
There was an eyehole in the door, and the lunatic, whom Mr. Collier
calls Daniel, was set to watch him. The poor wretch in his ravings
called, "Bring down the baggonets! Oh, marcy on me! Forty thousand
Roosians! Oh! oh! oh! I wish I was in Abraham's bosom," and began to
kick and plunge furiously. On which Daniel shouted to him through the
hole, "Why I tell'ee if you was, you'd kick the guts out of 'un."
Daniel came from Tavistock, where he used to walk out with a girl. As
he told the story himself--"I was keepin' company with a maid, and I
went to the parson. Says I to he, 'I want you, however, to promise me
wan thing,' says I. 'What is it?' says he. 'I want you to promise me,'
says I, 'never to marry me to thickee there maid when I be drunk.' He
zaid he'd promise me that, quite sure. 'Thankee, your honour,' said I;
'then I'm all right, for I'll take damned good care you never do it
when I'm zober.'"
Daniel was then in the Volunteers and was out on Whitchurch Down in a
review. An officer rode up to the bugler, and said "Sound a retreat!"
The bugler tried, but could produce no sound. "Sound a retreat!" roared
the officer. Again the bugle would not speak. "Sound a retreat!" shouted
the officer for the third time. "Don't you see that the cavalry are
charging down on us?" "There now, I can't," replied the bugler; "for
why? I've gone and spit my quid of terbaccer in the mouthpiece o'un."
Hicks no doubt was quite justified in picking up and appropriating to
himself stories wherever he could find them and from whomsoever he
heard them. A common friend of ours was with him one day in Plymouth,
and as they sat on the Hoe my friend told Hicks a couple of racy
anecdotes about his own work.
That evening both dined with Lord Mount Edgcumbe, and Hicks told both
these stories with immense humour, as though they had happened
recently--the previous week--to himself.
And certainly some of Hicks's stories are very old chestnuts.
This, for instance, was told by Hicks as having to his knowledge
occurred to two brothers, Jemmy and Sammy, in the Jamaica Inn, on the
Bodmin Moors, between that town and Launceston.
They were to sleep in a double-bedded room, and they dined and drank
pretty freely--the Jamaica Inn is now a temperance house--and went to
bed. Before retiring to rest one of them put out the light.
After they had been in bed a little while Jemmy said, "I say, Sammy,
there be a feller in my bed."
_Sammy_--"So there be in mine."
_Jemmy_--"What shall you do, Sammy?"
_Sammy_--"Kick 'un out."
_Jemmy_--"So shall I."
So they both proceeded to kick furiously, with the result that each
fell out on the opposite side of the bed. By mistake in the dark the
last to put out the light and go to bed had entered his brother's bed.
I have heard the same tale told of the Yorkshire moors some thirty to
forty years ago.
The famous story of Rabbits and Onions, that Hicks would tell in such
a way as to bring the tears rolling down the cheeks with laughter, may
or may not be founded on fact, or it may be--and that is probably the
case--a condensation into one tale of a good deal of experience with
juries. But the same story is told by Rosegger of a trial in Styria.
The following is almost certainly genuine. Anyhow, it is an excellent
example of the way in which Hicks could put a story.
"I met a man [name given] in Bodmin, and said to him, 'You are not
looking well. What is the matter?'
"The man replied that he had spent an indifferent night.
"'How is that?' I inquired.
"'I sleep with father,' he replied; 'and I woke up all in the dead
waste and middle of the night, and I reached forth my hand and
couldn't feel nothing; so I ses, ses I, "Wherever is my poor dear old
aged tender parent?" I got out of bed and strick a light, all in the
dead waste and middle of the night, and sarched the room; sarched
under the bed and in the cupboards; and ses I, "Wherever is my poor
dear old aged tender parent?"
"'I went down over the stairs, all in the dead waste and middle of the
night, and sarched under the stairs and in the kitchen; and ses I,
"Wherever is my poor dear old aged tender parent?"
"'Then I went to the coal-hole, all in the dead waste and middle of
the night, and sarched all about; and ses I, "Wherever is my poor dear
old aged tender parent?"
"'And I went down into the garden, all in the dead waste and middle of
the night; and ses I, "Wherever is my poor dear old aged tender parent?"
"'I went down to the parzley bed, all in the dead waste and middle of
the night, and there I found 'un. He'd a cut his throat with the
rape(ing)-hook. I took 'un by the hair of his head, and I zaid, ses I,
"You darned old grizzley blackguard, you've brought disgrace on the
family." I brought 'un in, and laid 'un on the table, and rinned for the
doctor; and he zewed up the throt o'un avore the vital spark was
'xtinct. Zo you zee, Mr. Hicks, I've had rather an indiffer'nt night.'"
Here is another of Hicks's stories:--
A young curate was teaching some boys in the Sunday-school, and was
impressing on them the duties to their parents.
"What do you owe your mother, Bill Lemon?"
"I don't owe her nothin'! her never lent me nothin'."
"But she takes care of you."
The boy stared.
"What does she do for you?"
"Her gives me a skat in the vace sometimes, and tells me to go
to"----(curate intervenes).
"That is not what I mean. When you are sick, what does she do?"
"Wipes it op."
Hicks, as already intimated, was a very short man, very rotund about
the belly. Following the Mayor of Bodmin into the room on the occasion
of a public dinner, he heard the Mayor announced in a voice of
thunder, "The Mayor of Bodmin." Following directly after he intimated
to the butler "and the Corporation." The man, without a moment's
consideration, roared out, "and the Corporation."
A man of Hicks's acquaintance--every man of whom he had a story to tell
was an acquaintance--made a bet that he would drink a certain number of
gallons of cider in a given time. The trial of the feat came off, and
the man was reduced to the last stage of helplessness, in an armchair,
his head resting on the back of the chair, his mouth open, utterly
unable to proceed, when he sighed out to his backers, "Try the taypot!"
The spout was used to pour down the liquor and the bet was won.
Hicks had a story of a farmer whom he knew intimately, and who had
been canvassed for the approaching election, and had promised his vote
to the lady of the candidate. Said she, "Dear Mr. Polkinghorne, when
you come up to town, do come and see us, come any time--come to
dinner. You are sure to be welcome."
Now, as it so fell out, Zechariah Polkinghorne did go to London on
some business, and in the evening, when his work was over, he called
at the member's house. As it happened that evening, a dinner party was
given. When his name was taken up, the member's wife said: "Good
gracious! What is to be done? We must, I suppose, have him in, or he
will be mortally offended, and next election will not only vote
against us, but influence a good many more voters."
So Mr. Polkinghorne was shown up into a room full of ladies and
gentlemen in evening dress, and felt somewhat out of it. Presently
dinner was announced and he went in with the rest and took his place
at the table.
"So sorry, Mr. Polkinghorne," said the lady of the house; "so sorry we
have no partner for you to take in; but, you see, you came
unexpectedly, and we had not time to invite a lady for you."
"Never mind, ma'am, never mind. It doth remind me o' my old sow to
home. Her had thirteen little piglings--zuckers--for a brood, and pore
thing had only twelve little contrivances for them to zuck to."
"What did the thirteenth do then, Mr. Polkinghorne?"
"Why, ma'am, thickey there little zucker was like me now--just out in
the cold."
[Illustration: WILLIAM R. HICKS OF BODMIN
_From a Caricature_]
Hicks was driving along a road in the dark one night when he came upon
an empty conveyance, and two men close to the hedge on the roadside.
One man was drunk--a Methodist class-leader--but the other was sober.
The drunken man was lamenting:--
"Ah, too bad! What shall I do when I be called to my last account?
What shall I zay?"