A Musket found by a native
Reports of plans to seize boats
_Supply_ arrives from Norfolk Island
The King's birthday
A canoe destroyed
Its evil effects
Corn sown
Battery begun
One hundred and forty acres inclosed for cattle
The _Mary Ann_ arrives
Two criminal courts held
Ration improved
The _Matilda_ arrives
The _Mary Ann_ sails for Norfolk Island
Settlers
The _Atlantic_ and _Salamander_ arrive
Full ration issued
The _William and Ann_ arrives
Natives
Public works
May.] Cole-be, the native who since our communication with these people
had attached himself to Mr. White, the principal surgeon, made his
appearance one morning in the beginning of the month with a musket,
which, on diving into the sea for something else, he had brought up with
him. It was supposed to have been lost from Mr. White's boat in November
last at the lower part of the harbour.
The scheme for seizing one of the boats was resumed in this month, and
appeared to be in great forwardness. The boat however was changed, the
long-boat being chosen instead of that which was at first thought of. She
was to be seized the first time she should be employed in towing the boy
with provisions to Rose Hill; out of which they were to take what
quantity they required for their purpose, land the crew, and run her
ashore. On receiving this information, the governor, instead of sending
the hoy up with different species of provisions, caused her to be loaded
with rice, and a small quantity of flour, in some measure to defeat their
scheme, at least for that time, as the information did not state that
they had collected any salt provisions. She was accordingly dispatched
with flour and rice, and returned safely, no attempt having been made to
stop her. It was then said, that they were at a loss for a person to
navigate her; and that a deposit of powder and ball was made at a farm
near the brick-fields; where however, on searching, nothing of the kind
was found. Various other reports were whispered during the month, which,
whether founded in truth or not, had this good effect, that every
necessary precaution was taken to prevent their succeeding in any attempt
of that kind which they might be desperate enough to make.
Much anxiety was excited on account of the long and unusual absence of
the _Supply_, which sailed for Norfolk Island on the 22nd day of March,
and did not return to this harbour until the 30th of this month, which
completed ten weeks within a day since she sailed. Contrary winds and
heavy gales had prevented her arrival at the time she might have been
reasonably expected. She was three weeks in her passage hither, and was
blown off the island for eleven days.
Captain Johnston, Lieutenants Creswell and Kellow, one sergeant, one
corporal, one drummer, and twenty privates of the marine detachment,
arrived in the _Supply_; with two prisoners, one a soldier for some
irregularity of conduct when sentinel, the other a convict.
The weather had been as dry at Norfolk Island as it had been here; which,
with the blighting winds, had considerably injured all the gardens, and
particularly some crops of potatoes. Of the great fertility of the soil
every account brought the strongest confirmation; and by attending to the
proper season for sowing, it was the general opinion that two crops of
corn might be got off in a year.
Their provisions, like ours, were again at so low an ebb, that the
lieutenant-governor had reduced the ration. The whole number victualled
when the _Supply_ sailed amounted to six hundred and twenty-nine persons;
and for that number there were in store at the _full_ ration, flour and
Indian corn for twenty weeks, beef for eighteen weeks, and pork for
twenty-nine weeks; and these, at the ration then issued, would be
prolonged, the grain to twenty-seven, the beef to forty-two, and the
pork to twenty-nine weeks.
It must however be remarked, that the ration at Norfolk Island was often
uncertain, being regulated by the plenty or scarcity of the Mount Pitt
birds. Great numbers of these birds had been killed for some time before
the _Supply_ sailed thence; but they were observed about that time to be
quitting the island.
On board the _Supply_ were some planks, and such part of the stores
belonging to the _Sirius_ as the lieutenant-governor could get on board.
That ship had not then gone to pieces; the side of her which was on the
reef was broken in and much injured, but the side next the sea (the
larboard side) appeared fresh and perfect.
At Sydney, by an account taken at the latter end of the month of the
provisions then remaining in store, there appeared to be at the ration
then issued of
Flour and rice 40 weeks, a supply till 31st March 1792;
Beef 12 weeks, a supply till 31st August 1791;
Pork 27 weeks, a supply till 21st December 1791.
In this account the rice and flour were taken together as one article,
but the rice bore by far the greatest proportion.
It was remarked by many in the settlement, that both at Sydney and at
Rose Hill the countenances of the labouring convicts indicated the
shortness of the ration they received; this might be occasioned by their
having suffered so much before from the same cause, from the effects of
which they had scarcely been restored when they were again called upon to
experience the hardship of a reduced ration of provisions. The convicts
who arrived in June had not recovered from the severity of their passage
to this country.
It having been said that James Ruse, who in March last had declared his
ability to support himself independent of the store, was starving, the
governor told him, that in consideration of his having been upon a short
allowance of provisions during nearly the whole of the time he had been
cultivating ground upon his own account, the storekeeper should be
directed to supply him with twenty pounds of salt provisions. The man
assured his excellency that he did not stand in need of his bounty,
having by him at the time a small stock of provisions; a quantity of
Indian corn (which he found no difficulty in exchanging for salt meat)
and a bag of flour; all which enabled him to do so well, that he
absolutely begged permission to _decline_ the offer. So very
contradictory was his own account of his situation to that which had been
reported.
The barracks at Rose Hill, being so far completed as to admit of being
occupied, were taken possession of this month by the New South Wales corps.
Several thefts of provisions were committed; two, that were of some
consequence, appeared as if the provisions had been collected for some
particular purpose; and, if so, perhaps only passed from the possession
of one thief to that of another. While a stalk of Indian corn remained
upon the ground, the convicts resolved to plunder it, and several were
severely punished; but it did not appear that they were amended by the
correction, nor that others were deterred by the example of their
punishment. So truly incorrigible were many of these people!
Finishing the clergyman's and surveyor's houses; bringing in bricks for
other buildings; posts and paling for a fence round the run of water; and
making clothing for the people, occupied the convicts at Sydney.
June.] The bad weather met with by the _Supply_ during her late voyage to
Norfolk Island had done her so much injury, that, on a careful
examination of her defects, it appeared that she could not be got ready
for sea in less than three months. In addition to other repairs which
were indispensable, her main mast was found so defective, that after
cutting off eighteen feet from the head of it and finding the heel nearly
as bad, the carpenter was of opinion that she must be furnished with an
entire new mast. This, when the difficulty of finding timber for her
foremast (which, it must be remarked, bore the heavy gales of wind she
met with, as well as could be desired even of wood the fittest for masts)
was recollected, was an unlucky and an ill-timed want; for, should it
happen that supplies were not received from England by the middle or end
of the month of July, the services of this vessel would be again
required; and, to save the colony, she must at that time have been
dispatched to some settlement in India for provisions. She was therefore
forthwith hauled along side the rocks, and people were employed to look
for sound timber fit for a mast.
On his Majesty's birthday an extra allowance of provisions was issued to
the garrison and settlements; each man receiving one pound of salt meat,
and the like quantity of rice; each woman half a pound of meat and one
pound of rice; and each child a quarter of a pound of meat and half a
pound of rice. And to make it a cheerful day to every one, all offenders
who had for stealing Indian corn been ordered to wear iron collars were
pardoned.
The town which had been marked out at Rose Hill, and which now wore
something of a regular appearance, on this occasion received its name.
The governor called it Parramatta, being the name by which the natives
distinguished the part of the country on which the town stood.
Notwithstanding the lenity and indulgence which had been shown on his
Majesty's birthday, in pardoning the plunderers of gardens and the public
grounds, and by issuing an extra allowance of provisions to every one,
the governor's garden at Parramatta was that very night entered and
robbed by six men, who assaulted the watchman, Thomas Ocraft, and would
have escaped all together, had he not, with much resolution, secured
three of them for punishment.
Indulgences of this nature were certainly thrown away upon many who
partook of them; but as it was impossible to discriminate so nicely
between the good and the bad as wholly to exclude the undeserving, no
distinction could be made.
The people who had assaulted the watchman were severely punished, as his
authority could never have been supported without such an example; but
either his vigilance, or the countenance which was shown to him on
account of his strict performance of his duty, created him many enemies;
and it became necessary to give him arms, as well for his own defence, as
for the more effectual protection of the district he watched over. Some
nights after, in a turnip ground at Parramatta, he was obliged to fire at
a convict, whom he wounded, but not dangerously, and secured. He was sent
down to the hospital at Sydney.
Since the establishment of that familiar intercourse which now subsisted
between us and the natives, several of them had found it their interest
to sell or exchange fish among the people at Parramatta; they being
contented to receive a small quantity of either bread or salt meat in
barter for mullet, bream, and other fish. To the officers who resided
there this proved a great convenience, and they encouraged the natives to
visit them as often as they could bring them fish. There were, however,
among the convicts some who were so unthinking, or so depraved, as
wantonly to destroy a canoe belonging to a fine young man, a native, who
had left it at some little distance from the settlement, and as he hoped
out of the way of observation, while he went with some fish to the huts.
His rage at finding his canoe destroyed was inconceivable; and he
threatened to take his own revenge, and in his own way, upon all white
people. Three of the six people who had done him the injury, however,
were so well described by some one who had seen them, that, being closely
followed, they were taken and punished, as were the remainder in a few
days after.
The instant effect of all this was, that the natives discontinued to
bring up fish; and Bal-loo-der-ry, whose canoe had been destroyed,
although he had been taught to believe that one of the six convicts had
been hanged for the offence, meeting a few days afterwards with a poor
wretch who had strayed from Parramatta as far as the Flats, he wounded
him in two places with a spear. This act of Ballooderry's was followed by
the governor's strictly forbidding him to appear again at any of the
settlements; the other natives, his friends, being alarmed, Parramatta
was seldom visited by any of them, and all commerce with them was
destroyed. How much greater claim to the appellation of savages had the
wretches who were the cause of this, than the native who was the
sufferer?
During this month some rain had fallen, which had encouraged the sowing
of the public grounds, and one hundred and sixteen bushels of wheat were
sown at Parramatta. Until these rains fell, the ground was so dry, hard,
and literally burnt up, that it was almost impossible to break it with a
hoe, and until this time there had been no hope or probability of the
grain vegetating.
In the beginning of the month, the stone-mason, with the people under his
direction, had begun working at the west point of the cove, where the
governor purposed constructing out of the rock a spot whereon to place
the guns belonging to the settlement, which was to wear the appearance of
a _work_. The flagstaff was to be placed in the same situation. The house
for the principal surgeon was got up and covered in during this month.
Among the convicts who died about this time, was ---- Frazer, a man who
came out in the first fleet, and who, since his landing, had been
employed as a blacksmith. He was an excellent workman, and was supposed
to have brought on an untimely end by hard drinking, as he seldom chose
to accept of any article but spirits in payment for work done in his
extra hours.
July.] To guard against a recurrence of the accident which happened to
our cattle soon after we had arrived, the governor had for some time past
employed a certain number of convicts at Parramatta in forming
inclosures; and at the commencement of this month not less than one
hundred and forty acres were thinned of the timber, surrounded by a
ditch, and guarded by a proper fence.
In addition to the quantity of ground sown with wheat, a large proportion
was cleared to be sown this season with Indian corn; and the country
about Parramatta, as well as the town itself, where eight huts were now
built, wore a very promising appearance.
At Sydney, the little ground that was in cultivation belonged to
individuals; the whole labour of the convicts employed in clearing ground
being exerted at Parramatta, where the soil, though not the best for the
purposes of agriculture (according to the opinion of every man who
professed any knowledge of farming) was still better than the sand about
Sydney, where, to raise even a cabbage after the first crop, manure was
absolutely requisite.
On the morning of the ninth, the signal for a sail was made at the
South Head; and before night it was made known that the _Mary Ann_
transport was arrived from England, with one hundred and forty-one female
convicts on board, six children, and one free woman, some clothing, and
the following small quantity of provisions: one hundred and thirty-two
barrels of flour; sixty-one tierces of pork; and thirty-two tierces of
beef.
This ship sailed alone; but we were informed that she was to be followed
by nine sail of transports, on board of which were embarked (including
one hundred and fifty women, the number put into the _Mary Ann_) two
thousand and fifty male and female convicts; the whole of which were to
be expected in the course of six weeks or two months, together with his
Majesty's ship _Gorgon_.
We also learned that Lieutenant King, who sailed hence the 17th April
1790, arrived in London the 20th day of December following, having
suffered much distress after leaving Batavia, whence he was obliged to go
to the Mauritius, having lost nearly all the crew of the packet he was in
by sickness. Mr. Millar, the late commissary, died on the 28th of August.
With great satisfaction we heard, that from our government having adopted
a system of sending out convicts at two embarkations in every year, at
which time provisions were also to be sent, it was not probable that we
should again experience the misery and want with which we had been but
too well acquainted, from not having had any regular mode of supply.
Intimation was likewise given, that a cargo of grain might be expected to
arrive from Bengal, some merchants at that settlement having proposed to
Lord Cornwallis, on hearing of the loss of the _Guardian_, to freight a
ship with such a cargo as would be adapted to the wants of the colony,
and to supply the different articles at a cheaper rate than they could be
sent hither from England. We were also to expect a transport with live
stock from the north west coast of America.
The master, Mark Monroe, had not any private letters on board; but (what
added to the disappointment every one experienced) he had not brought a
single newspaper; and, having been but a few weeks from Greenland before
he sailed for this country, he was destitute of any kind of information.
The _Mary Ann_ had a quick passage, having been only four months and
sixteen days from England. She touched nowhere, except at the island of
St. Iago, where she remained ten days. The master landed a boat in a bay
on this coast about fifteen miles to the southward of Botany Bay; but
made no other observation of any consequence to the colony, than that
there was a bay in which a boat might land.
The women, who were all very healthy, and who spoke highly of the
treatment which they had experienced from Mr. Monroe, were landed
immediately after the arrival of the transport in the cove, and were
distributed among the huts at Sydney, while the governor went up to
Parramatta to make such preparation as the time would admit for the
numbers he expected to receive.
The convicts whose terms of transportation had expired were now
collected, and by the authority of the governor informed, that such of
them as wished to become settlers in this country should receive every
encouragement; that those who did not, were to labour for their
provisions, stipulating to work for twelve or eighteen months certain;
and that in the way of such as preferred returning to England no
obstacles would be thrown, provided they could procure passages from the
masters of such ships as might arrive; but that they were not to expect
any assistance on the part of Government to that end. The wish to return
to their friends appeared to be the prevailing idea, a few only giving in
their names as settlers, and none engaging to work for a certain time.
We had twice in this month found occasion to assemble the court of
criminal judicature. In the night of Saturday the 16th, a soldier of the
marine detachment was detected by the patrols in the spirit cellar
adjoining to the deputy-commissary's house, the lock of which he had
forced. On being taken up, he offered, if he could be admitted an
evidence, to convict two others; which being allowed, the court was
assembled on the 19th, when two of his brother soldiers were tried; but
for want of evidence sufficiently strong to corroborate the testimony of
the accomplice, they were of necessity acquitted. Godfrey the accomplice
was afterwards tried by a military court for neglect of duty and
disobedience of orders in quitting his post when sentinel; which offence
being proved against him, he was sentenced to receive eight hundred
lashes, and to be drummed out of the corps. In the evening of the day on
which he was tried (the 21st) he received three hundred lashes, and was
drummed out with every mark of disgrace that could be shown him. In a
short time afterwards the two soldiers who had been acquitted were sent
to do duty at the South Head. There was little room to doubt, but that in
concert with Godfrey they had availed themselves of their situations as
sentinels, and frequently entered the cellar; and it was judged necessary
to place them where they would be disabled from concerting any future
scheme with him.
A convict was tried for a burglary by the same court, but was acquitted.
On the 27th another court was assembled for the trial of James Chapman,
for a burglary committed in the preceding month in the house of John
Petree, a convict, in which he stole several articles of wearing apparel.
Charles Cross and Joseph Hatton, two convicts, were also tried for
receiving them knowing them to be stolen. Chapman the principal, refusing
to plead any thing but guilty, received sentence of death. Against the
receivers it appeared in evidence, that after the burglary was committed
the property was concealed in the woods between Sydney and Parramatta, at
which place all the parties resided; that having suffered it to remain
some weeks, Chapman and Cross went from Parramatta to bring it away; and
while they were so employed, Hatton found that the watchmen were going in
pursuit of Chapman; on which he directly set off to meet and advertise
them of it, and receive the property, which, by a clear chain of
evidence, he was proved to have taken and concealed again in the woods.
Hatton was found guilty, and sentenced to receive eight hundred lashes.
Cross was acquitted. Chapman was executed the following day at noon. Half
an hour before he died, he informed the judge-advocate and the clergyman
who attended him, that a plan was formed of breaking into the
government-house, and robbing it of a large sum of money which it was
imagined the governor kept in it; and that it was to be executed by
himself and three other convicts, all of whom were, however, very far
from being of suspicious characters. But as there was no reason to
suppose that a person in such an awful situation would invent an
accusation by which he could not himself be benefited, and which might
injure three innocent people, the governor took all the precautions that
he thought necessary to guard against the meditated villainy.
A practice having been discovered, of purchasing the soldiers regimental
necessaries for the purpose of disposing of them among the shipping, and
this requiring a punishment that should effectually check it, Bond, a
convict who baked for the hospital and others, was brought before two
magistrates, and, being convicted of having bought several articles of
wearing apparel which had been served to a soldier, was sentenced to pay
the penalty prescribed by act of parliament, five pounds; or, on failure
within a certain time, to go to prison. Having made some considerable
profits in the exercise of his trade as a baker, he preferred paying the
penalty.
It being always desirable to go as near the established ration as the
state of the stores would allow, and the governor never wishing to keep
the labouring man one moment longer than was absolutely necessary upon a
reduced allowance of provisions, he directed two pounds of rice to be
added to the weekly proportion of that article; but, although by this
addition eight pounds of grain were issued, viz three pounds of flour and
five pounds of rice, the ration was far from being brought up to the
standard established by the Treasury for the colony; five pounds of bad
worm-eaten rice making a most inadequate substitute for the same quantity
of good flour. In the article of meat the labouring man suffered still
more; for in a given quantity of sixty pounds, which were issued on one
serving day to two messes, there were no less than forty pounds of bone,
and the remainder, which was intended to be eaten, was almost too far
advanced in putrefaction for even hunger to get down. It must be observed
that it came in the snow from Batavia.
Patrick Burn, a person employed to shoot for the commanding officer of
the marine detachment, died this month: and the hut that he had lived in
was burnt down in the night a few hours after his decease, by the
carelessness of the people, who were Irish and were sitting up with the
corpse, which was with much difficulty saved from the flames, and not
until it was much scorched.
August.] On Monday, the 1st of August, the _Matilda_, the first of the
expected fleet of transports, arrived, after an extraordinary passage of
four months and five days, from Portsmouth; having sailed from thence on
the 27th day of March last, with four sail of transports for this place,
with whom she parted company that night off Dunnoze. Another division of
transports had sailed a week before from Plymouth Sound. On board the
_Matilda_ were two hundred and five male convicts, one ensign, one.
sergeant, one corporal, one drummer, and nineteen privates, of the New
South Wales corps; and some stores and provisions calculated as a supply
for the above number for nine months after their arrival.
The master of this ship anchored for two days in a bay of one of
Schoeten's Islands, distant from the main land about twelve miles, in the
latitude of 42 degrees 15 minutes S.: where, according to his report,
five or six ships might find shelter. Those who were on shore saw the
footsteps of different kinds of animals, and traces of natives, such as
huts, fires, broken spears, and the instrument which they use for
throwing the spear. They spoke of the soil as sandy, and observed that
the ground was covered with shrubs such as were to be found here.
The convicts in this ship, on their landing, appeared to be aged and
infirm, the state in which they were said to have been embarked. It was
not therefore to be wondered at, that they had buried twenty-five on the
passage. One soldier also died. Twenty were brought in sick, and were
immediately landed at the hospital.
It was intended by the governor that this ship should have proceeded
immediately to Norfolk Island with the greater part of the convicts she
had on board, together with all the stores and provisions; but the
master, Mr. Matthew Weatherhead, requesting that as the ship was very
leaky the _Mary Ann_ might be permitted to perform the service required,
instead of the _Matilda_ (both ships belonging to the same owners), and
the _Mary Ann_ being perfectly ready for sea, the governor consented to
this proposal; and that ship was hauled alongside the _Matilda_ to
receive her cargo. Fifty-five of the convicts brought in this ship,
selected from the others as farmers or artificers, were sent up to
Parramatta; of the remainder, those whose health would permit them to go
were put on board the _Mary Ann_, together with thirty-two convicts of
bad character from among those who came out in the preceding year, and
eleven privates of the New South Wales corps. On the Monday following
(the 8th) the _Mary Ann_ sailed for Norfolk Island.
At Parramatta the only accommodation which the shortness of the notice
admitted of being provided for the people who were on their passage was
got up; two tent huts, one hundred feet long, thatched with grass, were
erected; and, independent of the risk which the occupiers might run from
fire, they would afford good and comfortable shelter from the weather.
The governor had now chosen situations for his settlers, and fixed them
on their different allotments. Twelve convicts, whose terms of
transportation had expired, he placed in a range of farms at the foot of
a hill named Prospect Hill, about four miles west from Parramatta;
fifteen others were placed on allotments in a district named the Ponds,
from a range of fresh-water ponds being in their vicinity; these were
situated two miles in a direction north-east of Parramatta. Between every
allotment, a space had been reserved equal to the largest grant on either
side, pursuant to the instructions which the governor had received; but
it was soon found that this distribution might be attended with much
disadvantage to the settler; a thick wood of at least thirty acres must
lie between every allotment; and a circumstance happened which showed the
inconvenience consequent thereon, and determined the governor to deviate
from the instructions, whenever, by adhering to them, the settlers were
likely to be material sufferers.
In the beginning of the month information was received, that a much
larger party of the natives than had yet been seen assembled at any one
time had destroyed a hut belonging to a settler at Prospect Hill, who
would have been murdered by them, but for the timely and accidental
appearance of another settler with a musket. There was no doubt of the
hut having been destroyed, and by natives, though perhaps their numbers
were much exaggerated; the governor, therefore, determined to place other
settlers upon the allotments which had been reserved for the crown; by
which means assistance in similar or other accidents would be more ready.
After the arrival of the _Matilda_, the governor, judging that his stores
would admit of increasing the weekly allowance of flour, directed that
(instead of three) five pounds of that article should be issued to each
man; and to each woman an addition of half a pound to the three which
they before received. The other articles of the ration remained as
before.
The platform which had been constructing on the West Point since June
last being ready for the reception of the cannon, they were moved thither
about the middle of the month; in doing which, a triangle which was made
use of, not being properly secured, slipped and fell upon a convict (an
overseer), by which accident his thigh was dislocated, and his body much
bruised. He was taken to the hospital, where, fortunately, Mr. White
immediately reduced the luxation.
About noon on Saturday the 20th, the _Atlantic_ transport anchored in the
cove from Plymouth, whence she sailed with two other transports, and
parted with them about five weeks since in bad weather between Rio de
Janeiro and this port, the passage from which had not been more than ten
weeks. She had on board a sergeant's party of the new corps as a guard to
two hundred and twenty male convicts, eighteen of whom died on the
passage. The remainder came in very healthy, there being only nine sick
on board. The evening before her arrival she stood into a capacious bay,
situated between Long Nose and Cape St. George, where they found good
anchorage and deep water. Lieutenant Richard Bowen, the naval agent on
board, who landed, described the soil to be sandy, and the country
thickly covered with timber. He did not see any natives, but found a
canoe upon the beach, whose owners perhaps were not far off. This canoe,
by Lieutenant Bowen's account, appeared to be on a somewhat stronger
construction than the canoes of Port Jackson.
The signal for another sail was made the next morning at the Lookout, and
about one o'clock the _Salamander_ transport arrived. She sailed from
England under Lieutenant Bowen's orders, with a sergeant's party of the
new corps and one hundred and sixty male convicts on board, one hundred
and fifty-five of whom she brought in all healthy, except one man who was
in the sick list. The party arrived without the sergeant, he having
deserted on their leaving England.
Both these transports having brought a supply of provisions calculated to
serve nine months for the convicts that were embarked, the governor
directed the commissary to issue the full ration of provisions, serving
rice in lieu of peas; the reduced ration having continued from Saturday
the 2nd day of last April to Saturday the 27th of August; twenty-one
weeks.
A party of one hundred convicts were sent from the Atlantic to
Parramatta, the remainder were landed and disposed of at Sydney. The
_Salamander_ was ordered to proceed to Norfolk Island with the people and
the cargo she had on board.
There were at this time not less than seventy persons from the _Matilda_
and _Atlantic_ under medical treatment, being weak, emaciated, and unfit
for any kind of labour; and the list was increasing. It might have been
supposed that on changing from the unwholesome air of a ship's
between-decks to the purer air of this country, the weak would have
gathered strength; but it had been observed, that in general soon after
landing, the convicts were affected with dysenteric complaints, perhaps
caused by the change of water, many dying, and others who had strength to
overcome the disease recovering from it but slowly.
On the 28th the _William and Ann_ transport arrived (the last of
Lieutenant Bowen's division). She had on board one sergeant and twelve
privates of the new corps, one hundred and eighty-one male convicts, with
her proportion of stores and provisions. She sailed with one hundred and
eighty-eight convicts from England, but lost seven on the passage; the
remainder came in very healthy, five only being so ill as to require
removal. The first mate of this ship, Mr. Simms, formerly belonged to the
_Golden Grove_ transport.
The town beginning to fill with strangers (officers and seamen from the
transports) and spirituous liquors finding their way among the convicts,
it was ordered that none should be landed until a permit had been granted
by the judge-advocate; and the provost-marshal, his assistant, and two
principals of the watch, were deputed to seize all spirituous liquors
which might be landed without.
Ballooderry, the proscribed native, having ventured into the town with
some of his friends, one or two armed parties were sent to seize him, and
a spear having been thrown (it was said by him) two muskets were fired,
by which one of his companions was wounded in the leg; but Ballooderry
was not taken. On the following day it was given out in orders, that he
was to be taken whenever an opportunity offered; and that any native
attempting to throw a spear in his defence, as it was well known among
them why vengeance was denounced against him, was, if possible, to be
prevented from escaping with impunity.
Those who knew Ballooderry regretted that it had been necessary to treat
him with this harshness, as among his countrymen we had no where seen a
finer young man. The person who had been wounded by him in the month of
June last was not yet recovered.
Discharging the transports formed the principal labour of the month; the
shingles on the roof of the old hospital being found to decay fast, and
many falling off, the whole were removed, and the building was covered
with tiles.
The convicts at Parramatta were employed in opening some ground about a
mile and a half above that settlement, along the south side of the creek;
and it was expected from the exertions which they were making, that
between forty and fifty acres would be soon ready for sowing with Indian
corn for this season. Their labour was directed by Thomas Daveney, a free
person who came out with the governor.