Transactions
Information from Norfolk Island
A burglary committed
The criminal court assembled
A man tried for killing a native
Two men executed
The public gaol burnt
Observations
Stills ordered to be seized
Settlers, their profligacy
A man found dead
Great drought
A flood at the river
Two whalers arrive
Conduct of the labouring convicts
A seaman killed
A woman murdered by her husband
Natives
A Spanish prize arrives
Norfolk Island
Resources in New South Wales
Public works
We must now return to the other concerns of the settlement, from which we
have been so long absent.
Some pleas of debt having been decided by the civil magistrates, to
relieve them from that duty, and enable them to attend to that only of
the justice of the peace, an order was issued, declaring that such pleas
belonged to the court of civil jurisdiction solely, as was clearly
expressed in the letters patent for establishing that court; but they
were at the same time requested to use their utmost endeavours, as far as
their influence as magistrates could be effectual, in recommending the
settling of trifling debts by arbitration, and thereby prevent much
vexatious litigation.
Agricultural concerns wore as unpromising an appearance in this as in the
last month. The governor, in a visit which he made to Parramatta, found
that the pasture over the whole country had been entirely burnt up; in
consequence of which the grazing cattle were in great distress; and, from
the lamentable continuance of the drought, the maize was every where
likely to fail: a misfortune that would ruin the stock of hogs, and
reduce the settlement considerably in the article of bread.
That he might ascertain what quantity of grain he had to depend on, all
those who cultivated ground were directed to give in by a certain time a
return of the wheat and other grain in their possession.
By the _Diana_ whaler, which arrived from Norfolk Island, information
was received, that the wheat harvest had been more productive there than
usual; but the maize was likely to fall short from a similar want of rain.
Wheat at this time bore a high price in Norfolk Island, the settlers who
had raised refusing to sell it, on account of the high rate of wages, at
less than fifteen shillings per bushel.
On the night of the 24th, the acting commissary's house was broken into,
and robbed of articles to a considerable amount. The thieves appeared to
have got in at the office window, and loosened the bricks of a partition
wall; by which opening they got into the store-room, and, forcing the
locks off the chests and trunks, carried away every thing that they could
manage.
One evil among others which attended the frequent arrival of ships in the
port was, the ready market which these plunderers found for disposing of
their stolen goods; the seamen not hesitating to become the purchasers on
leaving the place.
The criminal court of judicature was assembled at the close of the month;
when one man, a sergeant of the New South Wales corps, was condemned for
forgery, but recommended to the governor's mercy by the court; another
was condemned for a burglary, and a third sentenced to receive a severe
corporal punishment, for having shot a native (man) at Botany Bay. Could
the evidence of some of these people have been taken, it was supposed
that he would have been capitally convicted, in which case he would
certainly have suffered, the governor being determined to put that
article of his Majesty's instructions in force, which, in placing these
people under the protection of the British Government, enjoined the
punishing any injury done to their persons or property, according to the
degree and nature of the offence.
When this man was brought out to be punished, several of the natives were
assembled for the purpose; and he received in their presence as much of
his sentence as he could bear, they witnessing his sufferings with the
most perfect indifference.
The weather was exceedingly hot during the whole of January.
February.] Deplorable was the catalogue of events that presented itself
in this month: executions, robberies, and accidents.
On the 8th a prisoner, who had been condemned to die by the last court,
suffered the sentence of the law. The recollection of his untimely end,
and his admonitions from the fatal tree, could not have departed from the
minds of those who saw and heard him, when another court sent another
offender to the same tree and for the same crime. Samuel Wright had been
once before respited at the gallows. On the morning of his execution, the
wretched man attempted to cut his throat; but as he only very slightly
wounded himself, it may be supposed that he merely hoped, by delaying the
execution, to gain time to effect an escape.
Before this court, was brought part of a nest of thieves, who had lately
stolen property to the amount of several hundred pounds; but none of them
were capitally convicted, being sentenced either to be transported to
Norfolk Island, or corporally punished.
It might be supposed, that these executions and punishments would have
operated as a check to the commission of offences; but they appeared to
be wholly disregarded, and enormity had not yet attained its full height.
On the night of the 11th, between the hours of eleven and twelve, the
public gaol at Sydney, which cost so much labour and expense to erect,
was set on fire, and soon completely consumed. The building was thatched,
and there was not any doubt of its having been done through design. But,
if this was the fact, it will be read with horror, that at the time there
were confined within its walls twenty prisoners, most of whom were loaded
with irons, and who with difficulty were snatched from the flames.
Feeling for each other was never imputed to these miscreants; and yet if
several were engaged in the commission of a crime they have seldom been
known to betray their companions in iniquity.
To complete this catalogue of offences, a few days after, some Irish
convicts, with their faces blackened, attacked the house of an
industrious man (one of the missionaries), whom they severely wounded in
several places and plundered of all his property.
Were it not evident that certain punishment awaited the conviction of
offenders, it might be supposed that a relaxation of the civil authority
had begotten impunity; but far otherwise was the fact: the police was
vigilant, the magistrates active, and the governor ever anxious to
support them, and with incessant diligence endeavouring to establish good
order and morality in the settlement. But, such was the depravity of
these people, from the habitual practice of vice, that they were become
alike fearless of the punishments of this or of the world to come.
Notwithstanding the settlement had before it the serious prospect of
wanting grain, and the consequent destruction of much useful stock, it
was known that several people had erected stills, and provided materials
for the purpose of distilling spirituous liquors; a pernicious practice
which had long been forbidden by every officer who had had the direction
of the colony. Former orders on this subject were now repeated, and
persons of all descriptions were called upon to use every means in their
power, in aid of the civil magistrate, to seize and destroy such stills
and materials as they might find.
Presuming on the late inefficient harvest, the settlers requested again
to be supplied with seed wheat from the store, but were refused. It was
well known, that they sold for spirits, to the last bushel of their crop,
and left their families without bread. Then they pleaded poverty and
distress, and their utter inability to repay what they had borrowed. When
seed has been lent them, they have not infrequently been seen to sell it
at the door of the store whence they had received it!
On the last day of the month a man belonging to the military was found
dead, sitting upright against the outside of the barrack paling. It was
known, that he had been much intoxicated the preceding night; and it was
supposed that, being unable to reach his hut, he had sat himself down,
and, falling asleep, passed from this life without a struggle.
The great drought and excessive heat had affected the water. Such ponds
as still retained any were reduced so very low, that most of them were
become brackish, and scarcely drinkable. From this circumstance, it was
conjectured, that the earth contained a large portion of salt, for the
ponds even on the high grounds were not fresh. The woods between Sydney
and Parramatta were completely on fire, the trees being burnt to the
tops, and every blade of grass was destroyed.
To defeat as much as possible the intentions of those who were concerned
in setting fire to the gaol, a strong and permanent building of stone,
with very substantial walls, was begun in this month, and was well
calculated to defy every such attempt in future.
March.] The dry weather which had so long prevailed, to the great
detriment of the cultivated and pasture grounds, was succeeded by rain
for two or three days, which greatly refreshed the gardens that were
nearly wholly burnt up, and every where revived the perishing vegetation.
At the Hawkesbury, however, an accident occurred, which, although not so
ruinous to the colony at large as the drought, proved most destructive to
the settlers in that district. This river suddenly, and in the course of
a very few hours, swelled to the height of fifty feet above its common
level, and with such rapidity and power as to carry every thing before
it. The government store-house, which had been erected at the first
settling of this part of the country, was not out of the reach of this
inundation, and was swept away, with all the provisions that it
contained. Many of the inhabitants were taken off from the ridges of
their houses, by a few boats which they fortunately had among them, just
in time to save their lives; for most of the dwellings were inundated,
and the whole country appeared like an extensive lake. Many hogs, other
live stock, poultry, with much of the produce of the last unfortunate
harvest, and the domestic effects of the people, were hurried away by the
torrent. Fortunately only one life was lost.
This was a most serious calamity; and, no cause having appeared to
indicate an approaching overflow of the river, the settlers were not
prepared for such a disaster. It was said, that the natives foresaw it,
and advised the inhabitants; but this wanted confirmation. If true, the
trait was a favourable one. There could, however, be no doubt, that,
unperceived by our people, a heavy fall of rain had taken place in the
interior of the country, among the mountains, and which, from the parched
state of the land for such a length of time, had in no part been
absorbed, but ran down the sides of the hills, as from mountains of solid
rock, filling all the low grounds, and branches of the river, which,
being in form suddenly serpentine, could not give vent so fast as the
waters descended.
It was hoped and believed, that this uncommon inundation would, in the
end, prove highly beneficial to the grounds so overflowed, causing them
for a season or more to produce with such abundance as to recover the
loss which the sufferers had sustained. In a few days this extraordinary
collection of water had found its way to the sea, and, the river
regaining its usual level, the settlers set about new cropping their
grounds; for which purpose they made application for seed wheat, that
certainly could not be refused; their other application, for bedding and
clothing, it was not so easy to comply with, from the poverty of the
public stores in these articles.
This fertile spot had, in some seasons, produced from fifteen to twenty
thousand bushels of wheat, and might justly be termed the granary of New
South Wales.
To relieve the inhabitants in some degree from the contemplation of these
distresses, the _Rebecca_, a whaler, came into the Cove from the
Cape of Good Hope, bringing authentic accounts of Lord Nelson's memorable
and brilliant victory over the French fleet at the mouth of the Nile.
This decisive battle was announced to the settlement in a public order,
and by a discharge of all the artillery in the colony.
The master of the _Rebecca_, having brought out a few articles for
sale, chartered the _Nautilus_ to take them to Norfolk island,
thinking to find a better market for them there than at this place, where
the late unsuccessful harvest had neither filled the granary of the
public nor the pocket of the settler. She sailed with this cargo in the
course of a few days.
On the 9th, the _Britannia_ whaler came in from sea, to repair some
damages which she had sustained in bad weather. She had been rather
successful in her fishery, having procured twenty-five tons of spermaceti
oil since her departure; and the master reported, that, had the weather
been more moderate, he should have been enabled to have more than half
filled his ship.
The criminal court was only once assembled during this month; when one
man was condemned to death for a burglary, and another* transported for
fourteen years to Norfolk Island.
[* This man, Isaac Nichols, an overseer, had been accused of
receiving stolen goods; but from some circumstances which occurred on the
trial, the sentence was respited until his Majesty's pleasure could be
taken.]
The civil court was also assembled for the decision of private causes, in
which it was engaged during a week.
Among other public works in hand were, the raising the walls of the new
gaol, laying the upper floor of the wind-mill, and erecting the churches
at Sydney and Parramatta. Most of these buildings did not advance so
rapidly as the necessity for them required, owing to the weakness of the
public gangs; and indeed scarcely had there ever been a thorough day's
labour, such as is performed by a labouring man in England, obtained from
them. They never felt themselves interested in the effect of their work,
knowing that the ration from the store, whatever it might be, would be
issued to them, whether they earned it or not; unlike the labouring man
whose subsistence, and that of his family, depends upon his exertions.
For the individual who would pay them for their services with spirits,
they would labour while they had strength to lift the hoe or the axe; but
when government required the production of that strength, it was not
forthcoming; and it was more to be wondered, that under such
disadvantages so much, rather than that so little, had been done. The
convicts whose services belonged to the crown were for the most part a
wretched, worthless, dissipated set, who never thought beyond the present
moment; and they were for ever employed in rendering that moment as easy
to themselves as their invention could enable them.
Of the settlers and their disposition much has been already said. The
assistance and encouragement which from time to time were given them,
they were not found to deserve. The greater part had originally been
convicts; and it is not to be supposed, that while they continued in that
state their habits were much improved. With these habits, then, they
became freemen and settlers; the effect of which was, to render them
insolent and presuming; and most of them continued a dead weight upon the
government, without reducing the expenses of the colony.
These expenses were certainly great, and had been considerably increased.
The settlement was at this time much in want of many necessary articles
of life; and when these were brought by speculators and traders who
occasionally touched there, they demanded more than five hundred per cent
above what the same articles could have been sent out for from England,
with every addition of freight, insurance, etc. They saw the wants of the
colony, and availed themselves of its necessities.
April.] On the first of this month the criminal court sat for the trial
of a soldier belonging to the regiment, who had a few days before stabbed
a seaman of the _Reliance_, who insulted him when sentinel at one of
the wharfs at Sydney. The man died of the wound; the soldier, being
called upon to answer for his death, proved to the satisfaction of the
court, that it had been occasioned by the intemperance of the seaman, and
he was accordingly found to have committed a justifiable homicide.
This accident was the effect of intoxication, to which a few days after
another victim was added, in the person of a female, who was either the
wife or companion of Simon Taylor, a man who had been considered as one
of the few industrious settlers which the colony could boast of. They had
both been drinking together to a great excess; and in that state they
quarrelled, when the unhappy man, in a fit of madness and desperation,
put an untimely end to her existence. He was immediately taken into
custody, and reserved for trial.
To this pernicious practice of drinking to excess, more of the crimes
which disgraced the colony were to be ascribed than to any other cause;
and more lives where lost through this than through any other
circumstance; for the settlement had ever been free from epidemical or
fatal diseases. How much then was the importation of spirits to be
lamented! How much was it to be regretted, that it had become the
interest of any set of people to vend them!
Several robberies which at this time had been committed were to be
imputed to the same source.
A new enemy to agriculture made its appearance in this month. A
destructive grub-worm was discovered in several parts of the cultivated
ground; and at the Hawkesbury a caterpillar had commenced its ravages
wherever it found any young grain just shooting out of the earth. This
occasioned some delay in sowing the government ground.
It having been for several days reported, that the crews of two boats,
which had been permitted to go to Hunter's River for a load of coals, had
been cut off by the natives, the governor ordered his whale boat to be
well armed, and to proceed thither in quest of the boats and their crews;
sending in her Henry Hacking, a person on whom he could depend. Upon his
return, he informed the governor, that on his arrival he found an attempt
had been made to burn the smaller boat, which had had three men in her,
who were each provided with a musket. The boat was there, but the men
were not to be found. Going immediately in search of them, he fell in
with a large body of natives all armed. On desiring them to inform him
what was become of the white men, they told him they were gone to Sydney.
This did not satisfy him, as he found they had taken away the sails of
the boats, the men's blankets, and every thing that they had with them.
He then threatened to kill them if they did not instantly inform him, and
presented his musket at them. This they laughed at, and said, that if he
did not go away, and leave them a small two-oared boat which he had
brought with him, and the whale boat, they would destroy every white man
there, and poised their spears in a threatening manner. He again levelled
his piece at them, and snapped it without priming, in the hope of
alarming them; but they were not so easily frightened, and became most
noisy and violent. Finding that an attack was almost certain, he charged
his gun with buck shot, and ordered them to leave the place; but, their
clamour increasing, he fired, and four of them fell, one of whom got up
again and ran off, the other three remaining upon the ground, probably
mortally wounded. The whole body disappeared, and no more was seen of
them, leaving Hacking to fill his boat and effect his retreat unmolested.
Our people having frequently visited this river for coals, and always
treating with kindness and civility the natives whom they met, this
behaviour was not to be accounted for, except by its being allowed that
all savages are under the dominion of a sudden impulse; which renders it
impossible to know when to trust them.
As the men belonging to the boat were not heard of for a considerable
time, it was feared they had been murdered by the natives; but they
fortunately reached the settlement safe.
On the morning of the 24th, the _Nautilus_ returned from Norfolk
Island, and with her came in a Spanish ship, a prize to two whalers,
which they had captured off Cape Blanco on the coast of Peru. She was
bound from Lima to Guiaquill.
A court of vice-admiralty having been assembled, she was condemned as a
legal prize, and part of her cargo* was in a few days sold by public
auction.
[* This consisted of sugar, flour, and an ardent spirit similar
to the _aqua ardente_ of the Brazils. The governor would not allow
this article to be sold by auction.]
This was a new circumstance in the annals of the settlement, and wore the
appearance of rendering it of more consequence than it had hitherto been.
Did it not go to prove, that at some future period, in the event of a
Dutch or Spanish war, it might become a place of much importance, by
offering a reception to the prizes of our cruisers, a court whereat they
could be condemned, and a market for their cargoes?
Two days afterwards the _Norfolk_ returned from Norfolk Island,
where the maize harvest had entirely failed, owing to the long drought
which had prevailed there.
Every year's experience proved, that this island never would be of the
utility which might be expected from the very great expense that was
incurred on its account. It was probable, that this expense had not been
adverted to in England; for all the bills drawn there were sent to New
South Wales to be consolidated into bills upon the treasury; by which
means the expenses of the principal settlement appeared to be far more
considerable than in fact they were. The boast of its containing timber
and flax fit for naval purposes, sufficient to construct and equip a
navy, falls to the ground, when it is considered that the whole island
does not contain a single harbour, cove, or inlet, fit to shelter a boat,
much less a ship; but that it is surrounded by a dangerous coral reef,
which has proved the loss of one King's ship, and many lives. Besides,
the soil of New South Wales produces timber and flax perfectly calculated
for all naval purposes, and in sufficient abundance. The single advantage
that this island presents is, as has been mentioned before, its proving a
place of punishment to such notorious offenders in the seat of government
as there escape the gallows; and for this purpose a small civil and
military establishment might be maintained at a much less expense than
the present.
If an idea may be hazarded, Van Diemen's Island holds out in every
respect a more advantageous spot for a settlement, than this parched,
unattainable island; and were it not for the expense already incurred
there, it would be advisable to remove the whole of that settlement
thither; where, from the account given by Captain Flinders, and Mr. Bass,
they would be as likely to remain unmolested by natives as they are at
Norfolk Island, and would possess the superior benefits of a temperate
climate and capacious harbour.
In addition to the advantages likely to be obtained in New South Wales by
the culture of the flax plant, the breed of sheep had been considerably
improved by crossing the smaller Bengal with the larger Cape sheep. The
fleece produced from this mixture was excellent; and a specimen of
woollen cloth fabricated of it was sent to England. One end of a web of
linen, wove from the wild flax of the country, was crossed with a thread
spun from the bark of a tree; and a web from that bark was crossed, in
the specimen sent home, by a thread of wool. All these were made under
many difficulties; but they answered the purpose of showing what might be
done, with proper tools, at a future period. There was not any doubt, but
that the flax plant would considerably improve by cultivation; and the
manufacture of woollens promised to be of great benefit to the
settlement, whenever a sufficiency of the raw materials was collected.
Necessity has been long known as the parent of resources, and the poverty
of the public stores in the article of clothing had prompted these
experiments of the wool, the flax, and the bark.
The discovery of the vast strata of coal must be reckoned among the new
lights thrown upon the resources of the colony. The facility that this
presents in working the iron ore* with which the settlement abounded,
must prove of infinite utility whenever a dock-yard shall be established
here; and the time may come, when the productions of the country may not
be confined within its own sphere.
[* Some of this iron ore, which has been smelted in England, has been
reported to be equal, if not superior, to Swedish iron.]
In addition to other public works already in hand, the governor directed
a piece of ground, consisting of about seventy acres, and three-miles
distant from Sydney, to be inclosed for the use of the stock in that
district.
The foundation of the walls of a government house at Parramatta was laid,
and the sowing the public wheat grounds begun; but, through want of
labouring people, less was sown this than in the last year.
The weather had been in general moderate and seasonable.