Barracks
Stock
Intelligence from Norfolk Island
Police established at the principal settlement
A successful haul of fish
A soldier tried for a rape
Provisions begin to fail
Natives
A launch completed
Rats
Ration reduced to two-thirds
_Sirius_ returns to the Cove
One of her mates lost in the woods
_Supply_ sails for Norfolk Island
Utility of the night watch
A female convict executed for house-breaking
Two natives taken
Serious charge against the assistant commissary satisfactorily cleared up
Lieutenant Dawes's excursion
The _Supply_ returns
Transactions
August.] Of the four barracks which were begun in March 1788, and at that
time intended to be finished as such, two had been for some time occupied
by the detachment, two companies residing in each; a third was at the
beginning of this month converted into a storehouse; and the wood-work of
the fourth was taken down and applied to some other purpose; the labour
and time required to finish it being deemed greater than the utility that
would be derived from it as a barrack, the two that were already occupied
conveniently and comfortably accommodating the detachment.
As every circumstance became of importance that might in its tendency
forward or retard the day whereon the colony was to be pronounced
independent of the mother-country for provisions, it was soon observed
with concern, that hitherto by far a greater proportion of males than
females had been produced by the animals we had brought for the purpose
of breeding. This, in any other situation, might not have been so nicely
remarked; but here, where a country was to be stocked, a litter of twelve
pigs whereof three only were females became a subject of conversation and
inquiry. Out of seven kids which had been produced in the last month, one
only was a female; and many similar instances had before occurred, but no
particular notice was attracted until their frequency rendered them
remarkable. This circumstance excited an anxious care in every one for
the preservation of such females as might be produced; and at the moment
now spoken of no person entertained an idea of slaughtering one of that
sort; indeed males were so abundant that fortunately there was no
occasion.
On the 7th Lieutenant Ball returned from Norfolk Island, and from an
unsuccessful cruise of nearly six weeks in search of the island and
shoals for which he was directed to look. He sailed over the identical
spot on which Mr. Shortland had fixed the latitudes and longitudes of his
island and his shoal, without seeing either, and therefore concluded,
that they had not been placed far enough to the northward. The error
might have lain in copying the account from his log-book into his letter.
From Norfolk Island Lieutenant King wrote, that he had cleared seventeen
acres of ground upon the public account, all of which were either sown or
ready for sowing; that caterpillars had done much damage to some wheat
which had just come up; and that he was erecting a storehouse capable of
containing a large quantity of stores and provisions, and had made a
visible road from Sydney Bay to Cascade Bay. The pine trees, of the
utility of which such sanguine hopes had been entertained, were found to
be unfit for large masts or yards, being shakey or rotten at thirty or
forty feet from the butt; the wood was so brittle that it would not make
a good oar, and so porous that the water soaked through the planks of a
boat which had been built of it. Mr. King also lamented their ignorance
of the proper mode of preparing the flax plant, which rendered it useless
to them. A single pod of cotton had been found on the island, and a tree
had been discovered, the bark of which was strong, and of a texture like
cotton. A species of bird also had been met with, which burrowed in the
ground, and had been seen in such numbers about the summit of Mount Pitt,
the highest hill on the island, that they were contemplated as a resource
in any future season of distress, should they be found to visit the
island at stated periods, and to deposit their eggs on it. Mr. King spoke
well of the general behaviour of the subjects of his little government
since the detection of their late scheme to overturn it.
From the frequent commission of offences in this settlement and at Rose
Hill, where scarcely a night passed but complaint was made on the
following morning of a garden being robbed, or a house broken into, so
favourable a report could not be given of the general conduct of the
people. The frequency of these enormities had become so striking, that it
appeared absolutely necessary to devise some plan which might put a stop
to an evil that was every day increasing. The convicts who were employed
in making bricks, living in huts by themselves on the spot where their
work was performed, were suspected of being the perpetrators of most of
the offences committed at Sydney; and orders had been given, forbidding,
under pain of punishment, their being seen in town after sunset. These
depredations continuing, however, a convict of the name of Harris
presented to the judge-advocate a proposal for establishing a
night-watch, to be selected from among the convicts, with authority to
secure all persons of that description who should be found straggling
from the huts at improper hours. This proposal being submitted to the
governor, and the plan thoroughly digested and matured, the first attempt
toward a police in this settlement commenced on Saturday the 8th of
August. The following are the heads of the plan:
The settlement was divided into four districts, over each of which was
placed a watch consisting of three persons, one principal and two
subordinate watchmen. These, being selected from among those convicts
whose conduct and character had been unexceptionable since their landing,
were vested with authority to patrol at all hours in the night, to visit
such places as might be deemed requisite for the discovery of any felony,
trespass, or misdemeanor, and to secure for examination all persons that
might appear to be concerned therein; for which purpose they were
directed to enter any suspected hut or dwelling or to use any other means
that might appear expedient. They were required to detain and give
information to the nearest guardhouse of any soldier or seaman who should
be found straggling after the taptoo had been beat. They were to use
their utmost endeavours to trace out offenders on receiving accounts of
any depredation; and in addition to their night duty, they were directed
to take cognizance of such convicts as gamed, or sold or bartered their
slops or provisions, and report them for punishment. A return of all
occurrences during the night was to be made to the judge-advocate; and
the military were required to furnish the watch with any assistance they
might be in need of, beyond what the civil power could give them. They
were provided each with a short staff, to distinguish them during the
night, and to denote their office in the colony; and were instructed not
to receive any stipulated encouragement or reward from any individual for
the conviction of offenders, but to expect that negligence or misconduct
in the execution of their trust would be punished with the utmost rigour.
It was to have been wished, that a watch established for the preservation
of public and private property had been formed of free people, and that
necessity had not compelled us, in selecting the first members of our
little police, to appoint them from a body of men in whose eyes, it could
not be denied, the property of individuals had never before been sacred.
But there was not any choice. The military had their line of duty marked
out for them, and between them and the convict there was no description
of people from whom overseers or watchmen could be provided. It might,
however, be supposed, that among the convicts there must be many who
would feel a pride in being distinguished from their fellows, and a pride
that might give birth to a returning principle of honesty. It was hoped
that the convicts whom we had chosen were of this description; some
effort had become necessary to detect the various offenders who were
prowling about with security under cover of the night; and the convicts
who had any property were themselves interested in defeating such
practices. They promised fidelity and diligence, from which the scorn of
their fellow-prisoners should not induce them to swerve, and began with a
confidence of success the duty which they had themselves offered to
undertake.
The _Sirius_, on being closely inspected and surveyed by her own
carpenter and the carpenter of the _Supply_, was found to be so much
weakened, that the repairs which were requisite to put her in a state fit
to encounter the storms of this coast would require the labour of four
men for six months and twenty-four days, not including Sundays in the
calculation. This was unfortunate; the resources of a king's yard were
not to be found in the careening cove in Port Jackson; people who looked
forward beyond the event of the morrow began to think that her services
might be wanted before she could be in a condition to render them; and it
was considered a matter of the utmost moment, to bestow the labour that
she required in as little time and with as much skill as the
circumstances of our situation would admit.
12th.] Such attentions as were within our power were shown to the
anniversary of his royal highness the Prince of Wales's birthday; and
although the table of our festivity was not crowned with luxuries or
delicacies, yet the glass that was consecrated on that occasion to his
royal highness's name was in no part of the British dominions accompanied
with more sincere wishes for his happiness.
On the 20th, Daniel Gordon, a convict, was brought to trial for stealing
a quantity of provisions and clothes, the property of persons employed by
the lieutenant-governor at some ground which he had in cultivation near
the settlement. The prisoner appearing wild and incoherent on being
brought before the court, the principal surgeon of the settlement was
directed to examine him, and giving it as his opinion, upon oath, that
the man's pulse very strongly indicated either a delirium or
intoxication, his trial was put off until the following morning, when,
the same appearances of wildness continuing on him, witnesses were
examined as to the tenor of his conduct during his being in confinement
for the offence; and the court were of opinion from their testimony,
'That the prisoner was not in a state of mind to be put upon his trial.'
He was therefore placed under the care of the surgeon at the hospital,
and the court broke up.
It was generally supposed, that a firm belief that his offence would be
fixed upon him occasioned the derangement of intellect which appeared. He
was a notorious offender, and had been once pardoned in this country
under the gallows. Many of his fellow-prisoners gave him credit for the
ability with which he had acted his part, and perhaps he deserved their
applause; but disordered as he appeared before the court, their humanity
would not suffer them to proceed against a wretch who either had not, or
affected not to have, a sufficient sense of his situation.
Slops were served to the convicts during this month, and the detachment
received the remainder of the shoes which they brought from England.
September.] In England some dependence had been placed on fish as a
resource for the settlement, but sufficient for a general distribution
had not hitherto been caught at any one time. On the 4th of this month
the people belonging to the _Supply_ had a very large haul; their seine
was so full, that had they hauled it ashore it must have burst; the ropes
of it were therefore made fast on shore, and the seine was suffered to
lie until left dry by the tide. The fish were brought up to the
settlement, and distributed among the military and convicts. A night or
two after this, a fishing-boat caught about one hundred dozen of small
fish; but this was precarious, and, happening after the provisions were
served, no other advantage could be derived from the circumstance, than
that of every man's having a fish-meal.
On the 10th a criminal court of judicature was assembled for the trial of
Henry Wright, a private soldier in the detachment, for a rape on a child
of eight years of age; of which heinous offence being found guilty, he
received sentence to die; but being recommended by the court to the
governor, his excellency was pleased to pardon him, on condition of his
residing, during the term of his natural life, at Norfolk Island. This
was an offence that did not seem to require an immediate example; the
chastity of the female part of the settlement had never been so rigid, as
to drive men to so desperate an act; and it was believed, that beside the
wretch in question there was not in the colony a man of any description
who would have attempted it.
On the 12th, the butter, which had hitherto been served at six ounces per
week to each man in the settlement, being expended, the like quantity of
sugar was directed to be issued in its stead. This was the first of the
provisions brought from England which had wholly failed; and, fortunately,
the failure was in an article which could be the best spared. It never
had been very good, and was not, strictly speaking, a necessary of life.
A small boat belonging to a gentleman of the settlement, having been too
deeply laden with cabbage-trees which had been collected in a bay down
the harbour for the purpose of building, was overset on her return to the
cove, by touching on a rock which lay off one of the points. There were
three people in her, two of whom swam on shore; the third remained five
hours on her keel, and was accidentally met with and picked up by the
people of a fishing boat.
Captain Hunter, unwilling to lose any opportunity of rendering a service
to the colony, while the repairs of his ship were going on, surveyed the
two adjoining harbours of Broken Bay and Botany Bay; and correct charts
were thus obtained of these two harbours, so admirably situated with
relation to Port Jackson.
The natives, who had for some time past given very little interruption,
toward the end of the month attacked Henry Hacking, one of the
quarter-masters of the _Sirius_, who, being reckoned a good shot, was
allowed to shoot for the officers and ship's company. His account was,
that, being in the woods, a stone was thrown at him from one of two
natives whom he perceived behind him, and that on looking about he found
dispersed among the trees a number that could not be less than forty.
Wishing to intimidate them, he several times only presented his piece
toward them; but, finding that they followed him, he at last gave them
the contents, which happened to be small shot for birds. These he
replaced with buckshot, and got rid of his troublesome and designing
followers by discharging his piece a second time. They all made off; but
some of them stumbling as they ran, he apprehended they had been wounded.
This account met with more credit than could usually be allowed to such
tales, as the person who gave it was held in great estimation by the
officers of his ship both as a man and as a seaman.
Mr. Palmer, the purser of the _Sirius_, having occasion to cut timber in
a cove down the harbour, was visited by some natives, who took an
opportunity of concealing two of his axes in the bushes. On his missing
the implements, the natives went off in some consternation, leaving two
children behind them, whom Mr. Palmer detained, and would have brought up
to the settlement, had not their friends ransomed them with the property
that had been stolen.
At Rose Hill, where the corn promised well, an Emu had been killed, which
stood seven feet high, was a female, and when opened was found to contain
exactly fifty eggs.
October.] The launch that was begun in May last by the carpenter of the
_Supply_, being completed, was put into the water the 5th of October.
From the quantity of wood used in her construction she appeared to be a
mere bed of timber, and, when launched, was named by the convicts, with
an happiness that is sometimes visible in the allusions of the lower
order of people, The Rose Hill Packet*. She was very soon employed in
transporting provisions to Rose Hill, and going up with the tide of
flood, at the top of high water, passed very well over the flats at the
upper part of the harbour.
[* She was afterwards generally known by the name of The Lump, a word
more strictly applying to her size and construction.]
Our enemies the rats, who worked unseen, and attacked us where we were
most vulnerable, being again observed in numbers about the provision
store, the commissary caused the provisions to be moved out of one store
into another; for, alas! at this period they could be all contained in
one. These pernicious vermin were found to be very numerous, and the
damage they had done much greater than the state of our stores would
admit. Eight casks of flour were at one time found wholly destroyed. From
the store, such as escaped the hunger of the different dogs that were
turned loose upon them flew to the gardens of individuals, where they
rioted upon the Indian corn which was growing, and did considerable
mischief
The presence of a captain being no longer deemed necessary at Rose Hill,
the military guard there for the protection of the stores was reduced to
a subaltern officer, and a proportionate number of privates. Mr. Dodd,
who had for some time been authorized by the governor to inflict corporal
punishment on the convicts for idleness, rioting, or other misdemeanors,
had obtained such an influence over them, that military coercion was not
so necessary as when the settlement was first established. Of this
person, the officers who had been on duty at Rose Hill from time to time
gave the most favourable reports, speaking of him as one in every respect
qualified to execute the trust which had been reposed in him by the
governor.
During this month a gang of convicts were employed at Sydney in forming a
convenient road from the hospital to the magazine and observatory on the
point; and a small hut, for the reception of a corporal's guard at the
hospital, was erected.
Of the few people who died in October, (one soldier, three women, and one
child), one was an unhappy woman who had been sent on board in a state of
insanity, and who had remained in that condition until the day of her
death; she and another of the three women died in child-bed; and the
soldier was carried off by a disorder which he brought with him into the
country. These circumstances tended to establish the good opinion
which was at first formed of the salubrity of the climate of New South
Wales.
November.] This month opened with a serious, but prudent and necessary
alteration in our provisions. The ration which had hitherto been issued
was, on the first of the month, reduced to two thirds of every species,
spirits excepted, which continued as usual. This measure was calculated
to guard against accidents; and the necessity of it was obvious to every
one, from the great uncertainty as to the time when a supply might arrive
from England, and from the losses which had been and still were
occasioned by rats in the provision store. Two years provisions were
landed with us in the colony: we had been within two months of that time
disembarked, and the public store had been aided only by a small surplus
of the provisions which remained of what had been furnished by the
contractor for the passage, and the supply of four months flour which had
been received by the _Sirius_ from the Cape of Good Hope. All this did
not produce such an abundance as would justify any longer continuance of
the full ration; and although it was reasonable to suppose, as we had not
hitherto received any supplies, that ships would arrive before our
present stock was exhausted; yet, if the period of distress should ever
arrive, the consciousness that we had early foreseen and strove to guard
against its arrival would certainly soften the bitterness of our
reflections; and, guarding thus against the worst, that worst
providentially might never happen. The governor, whose humanity was at
all times conspicuous, directed that no alteration should he made in the
ration to be issued to the women. They were already upon two thirds of
the man's allowance; and many of them either had children who could very
well have eaten their own and part of the mother's ration, or they had
children at the breast; and although they did not labour, yet their
appetites were never so delicate as to have found the full ration too
much, had it been issued to them. The like reduction was enforced afloat
as well as on shore, the ships' companies of the _Sirius_ and _Supply_
being put to two thirds of the allowance usually issued to the king's
ships. This, as a deduction of the eighths allowed by custom to the
purser was made from their ration, was somewhat less than what was to be
issued in the settlement.
Thus opened the month of November in this settlement; where, though we
had not the accompanying gloom and vapour of our own climate to render it
terrific to our minds, yet we had that before us, in the midst of all our
sunshine, which gave it the complexion of the true November so inimical
to our countrymen.
It was soon observed, that of the provisions issued at this ration on the
Saturday the major part of the convicts had none left on the Tuesday
night; it was therefore ordered, that the provisions should be served in
future on the Saturdays and Wednesdays. By these means, the days which
would otherwise pass in hunger, or in thieving from the few who were more
provident, would be divided, and the people themselves be more able to
perform the labour which was required from them. Overseers and married
men were not included in this order.
On the 7th Captain Hunter brought the _Sirius_ into the cove completely
repaired. She had been strengthened with riders placed within board, her
copper had been carefully examined, and she was now in every respect fit
for sea. Previous to her quitting the careening cove, Mr. Hill, one of
the master's mates, having had some business at Sydney, was landed on his
return early in the morning on the north shore, opposite Sydney Cove,
from whence the walk to the ship was short; but he was never afterwards
heard of. Parties were sent day after day in quest of him for several
days. Guns were fired from the _Sirius_ every four hours, night and day,
but all to no effect. He had met with some fatal accident, which deprived
a wife of the pleasurable prospect of ever seeing him return to her and
to his friends. He had once before missed his way; and it was reported,
when his loss was confirmed, that he declared on the fatal morning, when
stepping out of the boat, that he expected to lose himself again for a
day or two. His conjecture was more than confirmed; he lost himself for
ever, and thus added one to the number of those unfortunate persons who
had perished in the woods of this country.
On the 11th the _Supply_ sailed for Norfolk Island, having on board
provisions and six male and eight female convicts for that colony. She
was to stop at Lord Howe Island, to endeavour to procure turtle for this
settlement; a supply of which, in its present situation, would have been
welcomed, not as a luxury, but as a necessary of life.
The night-watch was found of infinite utility. The commission of crimes,
since their institution, had been evidently less frequent, and they were
instrumental in bringing forward for punishment several offenders who
would otherwise have escaped. The fear and detestation in which they were
held by their fellow-prisoners was one proof of their assiduity in
searching for offences and in bringing them to light; and it possibly
might have been asserted with truth, that many streets in the metropolis
of London were not so well guarded and watched as the small, but rising
town of Sydney, in New South Wales.
By their activity, a woman (a female convict of the name of Ann Davis
alias Judith Jones), was apprehended for breaking into the house of
Robert Sidaway (a convict) in the daytime, and stealing several articles
of wearing apparel thereout. The criminal court being assembled, she was
tried and found guilty. On receiving sentence to die, she pleaded being
quick with child; but twelve of the discreetest women among the convicts,
all of whom had been mothers of children, being impanelled as a jury of
matrons, they pronounced that she was not pregnant; on which she was
executed the Monday following, acknowledging at that fatal moment which
generally gives birth and utterance to truth, that she was about to
suffer justly, and that an attempt which she made, when put on her
defence, to criminate another person (a woman whose character was so
notorious that she hoped to establish her own credit and innocence upon
her infamy), as well as her plea of pregnancy, were advanced merely for
the purpose of saving her life. She died generally reviled and unpitied
by the people of her own description.
The summer was observed to be the chief season of fish. A fishing-boat
belonging to the colony had so many fish in the seine, that had it not
burst at the moment of landing, it was imagined that a sufficiency would
have been taken to have served the settlement for a day; as it was, a
very considerable quantity was brought in; and not long after a boat
belonging to the _Sirius_ caught forty-seven of the large fish which
obtained among us the appellation of Light Horse Men, from the peculiar
conformation of the bone of the head, which gave the fish the appearance
of having on a light-horse man's helmet.
The governor, after the death of the native who was carried off by the
smallpox in May last, never had lost sight of a determination to procure
another the first favourable opportunity. A boat had several times gone
down the harbour for that purpose; but without succeeding, until the 25th
of this month, when the first lieutenant of the _Sirius_, accompanied by
the master, fortunately secured two natives, both men, and brought them
up to the settlement without any accident. Being well known to the
children, through their means every assurance was given them of their
perfect safety in our possession. They were taken up to the governor's,
the place intended for their future residence, where such restraint was
laid upon their persons as was judged requisite for their security.
The assurances of safety which were given them, and the steps which were
taken to keep them in a state of security, were not perfectly
satisfactory to the elder of the two; and he secretly determined to take
the first opportunity which offered of giving his attendants no further
trouble upon his account. The negligence of his keeper very soon gave him
the opportunity he desired; and he made his escape, taking with him into
the woods the fetter which had been rivetted to his ankle, and which
every one, who knew the circumstance, imagined he would never be able to
remove. His companion would have joined him in his flight, but fear
detained him a few minutes too late, and he was seized while tremblingly
alive to the joyful prospect of escaping.
During the month of November a brick house was begun on the east side of
the cove for the judge-advocate. The huts which were got up on our first
landing were slight and temporary; every shower of rain washed a portion
of the clay from between the interstices of the cabbage-tree of which
they were constructed; their covering was never tight; their size was
necessarily small and inconvenient; and although we had not hitherto been
so fortunate as to discover limestone any where near the settlement, yet
to occupy a brick house put together with mortar formed of the clay of
the country, and covered with tiles, became in point of comparative
comfort and convenience an object of some importance.
December.] Among the various business which came before the magistrates
at their weekly meetings, was one which occupied much of their time and
attention. The convicts who were employed about the provision store
informed the commissary, by letter, that from certain circumstances, they
had reason to accuse Mr. Zachariah Clark, his assistant, of embezzling
the public provisions. A complaint of such a nature, as well on account
of its importance to the settlement, as of its consequence to the person
accused, called for an immediate enquiry; and the judge-advocate and
Captain Hunter lost no time in bringing forward the necessary
investigation. The convicts charged Mr. Clark with having made at
different times, and applied to his own use, a considerable over-draught
of every species of provisions, and of the liquor which was in store. A
dread of these circumstances being one day discovered by others, when the
blame of concealment might involve them in a suspicion of participation,
induced them to step forward with the charge. The suspicious appearances,
however, were accounted for by Mr. Clark much to the satisfaction of the
magistrates under whose consideration they came. He stated, that
expecting to be employed in this country, he had brought out with him
large quantities of provisions, wine, rum, draught and bottled porter,
all of which he generally kept at the store; that when parties have
applied to him for provisions or spirits at an hour when the store was
shut, he had frequently supplied them from his own case, or stock which
he had for present use in his tent or in his house, and afterwards repaid
himself from the store; and that being ill with the scurvy for several
months after his arrival, he did not use any salt provisions, which gave
him a considerable credit for such articles at the store: from all which
circumstances the convicts who accused him might, as they were unknown to
them, be induced to imagine that he was taking up more than his ration
from time to time.
With Mr. Clark's ample and public acquittal from this accusation, a
commendation equally public was given to the convicts, who, noticing the
apparent over-draught of spirits and provisions, and ignorant at the same
time of the causes which occasioned it, had taken measures to have it
explained.
From the peculiarity of our situation, there was a sort of sacredness
about our store; and its preservation pure and undefiled was deemed as
necessary as the chastity of Caesar's wife. With us, it would not bear
even suspicion.
In the course of this month the harvest was got in; the ground in
cultivation at Rose Hill produced upwards of two hundred bushels of
wheat, about thirty-five bushels of barley, and a small quantity of oats
and Indian corn; all of which was intended to be reserved for feed. At
Sydney, the spot of ground called the Governor's Farm had been sown only
with barley, and produced about twenty-five bushels.
A knowledge of the interior parts of this extensive country was anxiously
desired by every one; but the difficulty of attaining it, and the various
employments in which we had all been necessarily engaged, had hitherto
prevented any material researches being made. The governor had penetrated
to the westward as far as Richmond Hill, perhaps between fifty and sixty
miles inland; but beyond that distance all was a blank. Early in this
month Lieutenant Dawes with a small party, taking with them just as much
provisions as they could conveniently carry, set off on an attempt to
reach the western mountains by and from the banks of the fresh water
river, first seen, some time since, by Captain Tench, and supposed to be
a branch of the Hawkesbury. From this excursion he returned on the ninth
day, without accomplishing his design, meeting with nothing, after
quitting the river, but ravines that were nearly inaccessible. He had,
notwithstanding the danger and difficulty of getting on through such a
country, reached within eleven miles of the mountains, by computation.
During his toilsome march he met with nothing very remarkable, except the
impressions of the cloven feet of an animal differing from other cloven
feet by the great width of the division in each. He was not fortunate
enough to see the animal that had made them.
In this journey Lieutenant Dawes's line of march, unfortunately and
unpleasantly for him, happened to lie, nearly from his setting out,
across a line of high and steep rocky precipices, which required much
caution in descending, as well as labour in ascending. Perhaps an open
country, which might have led him readily and conveniently to the point
he proposed to attain, was lying at no great distance from him either to
his right or left. To seek for that, however, might have required more
time than his stock of provisions would have admitted; and he was
compelled to return through the same unprofitable country which he had
passed.
On the 21st, between ten and eleven o'clock at night, the _Supply_
returned from Norfolk Island, having been absent six weeks within a day.
From thence Lieutenant King wrote that he expected his harvest would
produce from four to six months flour for all his inhabitants, exclusive
of a reserve of double feed for twenty acres of ground. Beside this
promising appearance, he had ten acres in cultivation with Indian corn,
which looked very well. His gardens had suffered much by the grub worm
and from a want of rain, of which they had had scarcely any since the
23rd of September last. The ground which was cleared for the crown
amounted to about twenty-eight acres, and he was busied in preparations
for building a redoubt on an eminence named by him Mount George.
The _Supply_, in her visit at Lord Howe Island, turned eighteen turtle;
several of which unluckily dying before she reached Norfolk Island, she
could leave only four there, and but three survived the short voyage
thence to this place.
Several thefts having been lately committed by the convicts, and the
offenders discovered by the vigilance of the members of our new police,
several of them were tried before the criminal court of juidicature.
Caesar the black, whose situation on Garden Island had been some time
back rendered more eligible, by being permitted to work without irons,
found means to make his escape, with a mind insensible alike to kindness
and to punishment, taking with him a canoe which lay there for the
convenience of the other people employed on the island, together with a
week's provisions belonging to them; and in a visit which he made them a
few nights after in his canoe, he took off an iron pot, a musket, and
some ammunition.
The working convicts at Sydney had lately been principally employed in
constructing two convenient kitchens and ovens for the use of the
detachment, adjoining to the quarters; building a house for the
judge-advocate; forming roads either in or leading to the town; and
removing the provisions from the old thatched storehouse to that in the
marine quarters, which, by being covered in with tiles, was not so liable
to an accident by fire, nor likely to prove so great an harbour for rats,
to guard against whom it had become necessary to take as many precautions
as against any other enemy. They, however, in defiance of every care
which was taken to shut them out, when the provisions were removed, found
means, by working under ground, to get in; and as it was now a matter of
much moment to preserve every ounce of provisions that belonged to us,
they were all taken out, and restowed with an attention suitable to their
important value.
At Rose Hill, where as yet there was not any night-watch established,
petty thefts and depredations were frequently committed, particularly on
the wheat as it ripened. The bakehouse also was robbed of a quantity of
flour by a person unknown. These offences were generally attributed to
the reduction which had taken place in the ration of provisions; and
every one dreaded how much the commission of them might be increased, if
accident or delay should render a still greater reduction necessary.
Mr. Dodd, the superintendant at that settlement, a few days before
Christmas, cut and sent down a cabbage which weighed twenty-six pounds.
The other vegetables productions of his garden, which was by no means a
rich mould, were plentiful and luxuriant.
Some people who had been out with a gun from Rose Hill brought in with
them, on their return, a tinder-box, to which chance conducted them in a
thick brush distinguished by the name of the New Brush, about six miles
from the settlement. This article was known to have belonged to the two
unfortunate soldiers who had been unaccounted for since last April, and
who, in great probability, found there a miserable period to their
existence. They also picked up in the same brush a piece of linen, said
to have formed part of a petticoat which belonged to Anne Smith, a female
convict who absconded a few days after our landing in the country. This
might have been carried thither and dropped by some natives in their way
through the brush; but it gave a strong colour to the supposition of her
having likewise perished, by some means or other, in the woods.