A party of Irish convicts abscond
The _Queen_ sails for Norfolk Island
Whale fishery
Ration altered
The _Supply_ sails for England
Live stock (public) in the colony
Ground in cultivation
Sick
Run of water decreasing
Two transports sail
Whale fishery given up
The _Queen_ arrives from Norfolk Island
The Marines embark in the _Gorgon_ for England
Ration further reduced
Transactions
Convicts who were in the _Guardian_ emancipated
Store finished
Deaths in 1791
November.] On the first day of this month, information was received from
Parramatta, that a body of twenty male convicts and one female, of those
lately arrived in the _Queen_ transport from Ireland, each taking a
week's provisions, and armed with tomahawks and knives, had absconded
from that settlement, with the chimerical idea of walking to China, or of
finding in this country a settlement wherein they would be received and
entertained without labour. It was generally supposed, however, that
this improbable tale was only a cover to the real design, which might be
to procure boats, and get on board the transports after they had left the
cove. An officer with a party was immediately sent out from Parramatta in
pursuit of them, who traced them as far down the harbour as Lane Cove,
whence he reached the settlement at Sydney, without seeing or hearing any
thing more of them. A few days afterward the people in a boat belonging
to the _Albemarle_ transport, which had been down the harbour to procure
wood on the north shore, met with the wretched female who had accompanied
the men. She had been separated from them for three days, and wandered by
herself, entirely ignorant of her situation, until she came to the water
side, where, fortunately, she soon after met the boat. Boats were sent
down the next day, and the woman's husband was found and brought up to
the settlement. They both gave the same absurd account of their design as
before related, and appeared to have suffered very considerably by
fatigue, hunger, and the heat of the weather. The man had lost his
companions forty eight hours before he was himself discovered; and no
tidings of them were received for several days, although boats were
constantly sent in to the north west arm, and the lower part of the
harbour.
Three of these miserable people were some time after met by some officers
who were on an excursion to the lagoon between this harbour and Broken
Bay; but, notwithstanding their situation, they did not readily give
themselves up, and, when questioned, said they wanted nothing more than
to live free from labour. These people were sent up to Parramatta,
whence, regardless of what they had experienced, and might again suffer,
they a second time absconded in a few days after they had been returned.
Parties were immediately dispatched from that settlement, and thirteen of
those who first absconded were brought in, in a state of deplorable
wretchedness, naked, and nearly worn out with hunger. Some of them had
subsisted chiefly by sucking the flowering shrubs and wild berries of the
woods; and the whole exhibited a picture of misery, that seemed
sufficient to deter others from the like extravagant folly. The practice
of flying from labour into the woods still, however, prevailing, the
governor caused all the convicts who arrived this year to be assembled,
and informed them of his determination to put a stop to their absconding
from the place where he had appointed them to labour, by sending out
parties with orders to fire upon them whenever they should be met with;
and he declared that if any were brought in alive, he would either land
them on a part of the harbour whence they could not depart, or chain them
together with only bread and water for their subsistence, during the
remainder of their terms of transportation. He likewise told them, that
he had heard they were intending to arm themselves and seize upon the
stores (such a design had for some days been reported); but that if they
made any attempt of that kind, every man who might be taken should be
instantly put to death. Having thus endeavoured to impress them with
ideas of certain punishment if they offended in future, he forgave some
offences which had been reported by the magistrate, exhorted them to go
cheerfully to their labour, and changed their hours of work, agreeably to
a request which they had made.
Four hundred and two of these miserable people had received medicines
from the hospital in the morning of the day when the governor had thus
addressed them. The prevailing disease was a dysentery, which was
accompanied by a general debility.
The _Queen_ sailed early in the month with an officer and a detachment of
the New South Wales corps, some convicts, stores and provisions, for
Norfolk Island. The _Salamander _sailed at the same time on her fishing
voyage.
From her intended trial of the whale-fishery on the coast the _Britannia_
arrived on the 10th, and was followed the next day by the _Mary Ann_.
Mr. Melvill killed, in company with the _William and Ann_, the day after he
went out, seven spermaceti whales, two only of which they were able to
secure from the bad weather which immediately succeeded. From the whale
which fell to the _Britannia's_ share, although but a small one, thirteen
barrels of oil were procured; and in the opinion of Mr. Melvill, the oil,
from its containing a greater proportion of that valuable part of the
fish called by the whalers the head-matter, was worth ten pounds more per
ton than that of the fish of any other part of the world he had been in.
He thought that a most advantageous voyage might be made upon this coast,
as he was confident upwards of fifteen thousand whales were seen in the
first ten days that he was absent, the greater number of which were
observed off this harbour; and he was prevented from filling his ship by
bad weather alone, having met with only one day since he sailed in which
he could lower down a boat.
The success and report of the master of the _Mary Ann_ were very
different; he had been as far to the southward as the latitude of 45
degrees without seeing a whale; and in a gale of wind shipped a sea that
stove two of his boats, and washed down the vessels for boiling the oil,
which were fixed in brick-work, and to repair which he came into this
harbour.
The _Matilda_ came in a few days afterwards from Jervis Bay, in latitude
35 degrees 6 minutes S and longitude 152 degrees 0 minutes E, where she
had anchored for some days, being leaky. The master of this ship,
Mr. Matthew Weatherhead, saw many whales, but was prevented from killing
any by the badness of the weather.
The _William and Ann_ came in soon after, confirming the report of the
great numbers of fish which were to be seen upon the coast, and the
difficulty of getting at them. She had killed only one fish, and came in
to repair and shorten her main-mast.
A difference of opinion prevailed among the masters of the ships which
had been out respecting the establishing a whale-fishery upon this coast.
In one particular, however, they all agreed, which was, that the coast
abounded with fish; but the major part of them thought that the currents
and bad weather prevailing at this season of the year, and which appeared
to be also the season of the fish, would prevent any ships from meeting
with that success, of which on their setting out they themselves had had
such sanguine hopes. One of them thought that the others, in giving this
opinion, were premature, and that they were not sufficiently acquainted
with the weather on the coast to form any judgment of the advantage to be
derived from future attempts. They were determined, nevertheless, to give
it another trial, on the failure of which they meant to prosecute their
voyage to the coast of Peru. Having set up their rigging, they went out
again toward the latter end of the month.
About the middle of the month an alteration took place in the ration; two
pounds of flour were taken off, and one pint of peas and one pint of
oatmeal were issued in their stead; the full ration, which was first
served on the 27th of August last, having been continued not quite three
months.
The _Supply_ armed tender, having completed her repairs, sailed for
England on the 26th, her commander, Lieutenant Ball, purposing to make
his passage round Cape Horn, for which the season of the year was
favourable. Lieutenant John Creswell of the marines went in her, charged
with the governor's dispatches.
The services of this little vessel had endeared her, and her officers and
people, to this colony. The regret which we felt at parting with them
was, however, lessened by a knowledge that they were flying from a
country of want to one of abundance, where we all hoped that the services
they had performed would be rewarded by that attention and promotion to
which they naturally looked up, and had an indisputable claim.
At this time the public live stock in the settlement consisted of one
stallion aged, one mare, two young stallions, two colts, sixteen cows,
two calves, one ram, fifty ewes, six lambs, one boar, fourteen sows (old
and young), and twenty-two pigs.
The ground in cultivation at and about Parramatta amounted to three
hundred and fifty-one acres in maize, forty-four in wheat, six in barley,
one in oats, two in potatoes, four in vines, eighty-six in garden ground,
and seventeen in cultivation by the New South Wales corps. In addition to
these there were one hundred and fifty acres cleared to be sown with
turnips, ninety-one acres were in cultivation by settlers, twenty-eight
by officers civil and military at and about Sydney; and at Parramatta one
hundred and forty acres were inclosed and the timber thinned for cattle;
making a total of nine hundred and twenty acres of land thinned, cleared,
and cultivated.
The platform at the west point of the cove was completed during this
month. The flag-staff had been for some time erected, and the cannon
placed on the platform. A corporal's guard was also mounted daily in the
building which had been used as an observatory by Lieutenant Dawes.
The mortality during this month had been great, fifty male and four
female convicts dying within the thirty days. Five hundred sick persons
received medicines at the end of the month. That list however was
decreasing. The extreme heat of the weather during the month had not only
increased the sick list, but had added one to the number of deaths. On
the 4th, a convict attending upon Mr. White, in passing from his house to
his kitchen, without any covering upon his head, received a stroke from a
ray of the sun which at the time deprived him of speech and motion, and,
in less than four-and-twenty hours, of his life. The thermometer on that
day stood at twelve o'clock at 94¾ degrees and the wind was at NW.
By the dry weather which prevailed our water had been so much affected,
beside being lessened by the watering of some of the transports, that a
prohibition was laid by the governor on the watering of the remainder at
Sydney, and their boats were directed to go to a convenient place upon
the north shore. To remedy this evil the governor had employed the
stone-mason's gang to cut tanks out of the rock, which would be
reservoirs for the water large enough to supply the settlement for some
time.
December.] On the 3rd of this month the ships _Albemarle_ and _Active_
sailed for India. After their departure several people were missing from
the settlement; some whose sentences of transportation had expired, and
others who were yet convicts. Previous to their sailing (it having been
reported that the seamen intended to conceal such as had made interest
among them to get off) the governor instructed the master to deliver any
persons whom he might discover to be on board without permission to quit
the colony, as prisoners to the commanding officer of the first British
settlement they should touch at in India. About this time a boat
belonging to Mr. White was taken from its mooring; and it was for a time
supposed that she had been taken off by some runaways to get on board
one of the ships then about to sail, and afterwards set adrift; but she
was found by some gentlemen of the _Gorgon_ the day after their
departure, between this harbour and Broken Bay, with two men in her, who
on the appearance of the party which found her ran into the woods. The
gentlemen left her with a plank knocked out, an oar and the rudder
broken, and otherwise rendered useless to the people who ran away with
her. They also fell in with a convict, an Irishman, who had been absent
five weeks from Parramatta, and who had set off with some others to
proceed along the coast in search of another settlement. The boat was
brought up a few days afterwards.
Two of the whalers, the _Matilda_ and _Mary Ann_, came in from sea the
day on which the other ships sailed. The former landed a boat in a bay
on the coast about six miles to the southward of Port Stephens, where the
seine was hauled and a large quantity of fish taken; but of the fish
which they went to procure (whales) they saw none.
The _Mary Ann_ was rather more fortunate. By going to the southward, she
killed nine fish; of five of them she secured enough to procure about
thirty barrels of oil; but was prevented by bad weather from getting
more. These ships sailed again immediately, and both ran down the coast
as far to the southward as 36 degrees 30 minutes, and returned on the
16th without killing a fish. The masters attributed their bad success to
currents; and, giving up all hopes of a fishery here, they determined,
after refitting, to quit the coast. The _Salamander_ and _Britannia_
whalers came in at the same time, and with like ill fortune. Melvill the
master of the _Britannia_, who had been formerly so sanguine in his hopes
of a fishery, seemed now to have adopted a different opinion, and hinted
to some in the colony, that he did not think he should try the coast any
longer. It must be remarked however, that the whalers were not out of
port at any one time long enough to enable them to speak with any great
degree of precision either for or against the probability of success.
They seemed more desirous of obtaining a knowledge of the harbours on
the coast; the _William and Ann_ had been seen in Broken Bay; others had
visited Botany Bay and Jervis Bay; the _Salamander_ had remained long
enough in Port Stephens (an harbour to the northward, until then not
visited by any one) to take an eye-sketch of the harbour and of some of
its branches or arms; and Port Jackson was found to have its
conveniences. After a well-manned and well-found whaler should have kept
the sea for an entire season, the success might be determined.
The _Queen_ transport having returned from Norfolk Island, with the
lieutenant-governor and the officers and soldiers of the marine corps,
who were to take their passage to England in the _Gorgon_, the greatest
part of the marine detachment embarked on board of that ship on the 13th.
Those who did not embark were left for the duty of the place until the
remainder of the New South Wales corps should arrive.
By the _Queen_ several convicts whose sentences of transportation had
expired were allowed to return to this settlement, pursuant to a promise
made them on their going thither; and we were informed, that the
_Atlantic_ sailed from Norfolk Island for Calcutta on the 13th of the
last month. Both ships landed safely every article they had on board for
the colony, being favoured by very fine weather while so employed.
Lieutenant-governor King, on taking upon him the government of the
island, pardoned all offenders whom he found in custody.
Governor Phillip having no further occasion for the services of the
_Gorgon_, that ship sailed for England on Sunday the 18th. Two convicts
had the folly to attempt making their escape from the colony in this
ship, but they were detected and brought back. A woman was also supposed
to have effected her escape; but she was found disguised in men's apparel
at the native's hut on the east point of the cove.
On board of the _Gorgon_ were embarked the marines who came from England
in the first ships; as valuable a corps as any in his Majesty's service.
They had struggled here with greatly more than the common hardships of
service, and were now quitting a country in which they had opened and
smoothed the way for their successors, and from which, whatever benefit
might hereafter be derived, must be derived by those who had the easy
task of treading in paths previously and painfully formed by them.
The cove and the settlement were now resuming that dull uniformity of
uninteresting circumstances which had generally prevailed. The _Supply_
and the _Gorgon_ had departed, and with them a valuable portion of our
friends and associates. The transports which remained were all preparing
to leave us, and in a few days after the _Gorgon_, the _Matilda_ and
_Mary Ann_ sailed for the coast of Peru. These ships had some convicts on
board, who were permitted to ship themselves with the masters.
A further reduction of the ration was directed to take place at the end
of the month, one pound being taken from the allowance of flour served to
the men. From the state of the provision stores, the governor, on
Christmas Day, could only give one pound of flour to each woman in the
settlement. On that day divine service was performed here and at
Parramatta, Mr. Bayne, the chaplain of the new corps, assisting Mr.
Johnson in the religious duties of the morning. There were some among
us, however, by whom even the sanctity of this day was not regarded; for
at night the marine store was robbed of twenty-two gallons of spirits.
At Parramatta various offences were still committed, notwithstanding the
lenity which had been shown to several offenders at the close of the last
month. Many of the convicts there not having any part of their ration
left when Tuesday or Wednesday night came, the governor directed, as he
had before done from the same reason, that the provisions of the
labouring convicts should be issued to them daily. This measure being
disapproved of by them, they assembled in rather a tumultuous manner
before the governor's house at Parramatta on the last day of the month,
to request that their provisions might be served as usual on the
Saturdays. The governor, however, dispersed them without granting their
request; and as they were heard to murmur, and talk of obtaining by
different means what was refused to entreaty (words spoken among the
crowd, and the person who was so daring not being distinguishable from
the rest), he assured them that as he knew the major part of them were
led by eight or ten designing men to whom they looked up, and to whose
names he was not a stranger, on any open appearance of discontent, he
should make immediate examples of them. Before they were dismissed they
promised greater propriety of conduct and implicit obedience to the
orders of their superiors, and declared their readiness to receive their
provisions as had been directed.
This was the first instance of any tumultuous assembly among these
people, and was now to be ascribed to the spirit of resistance and
villany lately imported by the new comers from England and Ireland.
Among the public works of the month the most material was the completing
and occupying the new store on the east side, which was begun in October
last; its dimensions were eighty by twenty-four feet; and as it was built
for the purpose of containing dry stores, the height was increased beyond
that commonly adopted here, and a spacious loft was formed capable of
containing a large quantity of bale goods. This was by far the best store
in the country.
In the course of the month a warrant of emancipation passed the seal of
the territory to John Lowe, Henry Cone, Richard Chears, Thomas Fisk,
Daniel Cubitt, Charles Pass, George Bolton, William Careless, William
Curtis, John Chapman Morris, Thomas Merrick, William Skinner, and James
Weavers, convicts who left England in the _Guardian_, on condition of
their residing within the limits of this government, and not returning to
England within the period of their respective sentences. Instructions to
this effect had been received from home, Lieutenant Riou having
interested himself much in their behalf. They were to be at liberty to
work at any trade they might be acquainted with; but during their
continuance in the country they were to be disposed of wherever the
governor should think proper. They were also at liberty to settle land
upon their own account.
The numbers who died by sickness in the year 1791 were, one of the civil
establishment (H. E. Dodd); two soldiers; one hundred and fifty-five male
and eight female convicts; and five children: in all one hundred and
seventy-one persons (twenty-eight more than had died during the preceding
year).
In the above time one male convict was executed; one drowned; four lost
in the woods (exclusive of the Irish convicts who had absconded, of whom
no certain account was procured); one destroyed himself, and eight men,
one woman, and two children, had run from the settlement; making a loss
of one hundred and eighty-nine persons.