Order respecting spirits
Seamen punished
Convicts enlisted into the new corps
Regulations respecting Divine Service
The _Hope_ sails
The _Bellona_ arrives
Cargo damaged
Information
Two women and a child drowned
The _Kitty_ sails for Norfolk Island
Ration
An Officer sent up to inspect the cultivation at Parramatta
A theft committed
Works
Kangaroo Ground opened
Settlers
Liberty Plains
Conditions
_Bellona_ sails
Transactions
The _Shah Hormuzear_ from Calcutta arrives
Information received by her
The dholl expended
Sickness and death occasioned by the American spirits
The _Chesterfield_ sent to Norfolk Island
Convicts sell their clothing
Two Spanish ships arrive
Information
Epitaph
A Criminal Court
The _Kitty_ returns from Norfolk Island
Fraud at the store at Parramatta
1793.]
January.] The lieutenant-governor having directed the commissary to
dispose of the spirits purchased from the American to the military and
civil officers of the colony, in which were included the superintendants,
and some others in that line, it was found that it had been purchased by
many individuals of the latter description with the particular view of
retailing it among the convicts. He therefore found it necessary to
declare in public orders, 'That it was his intention to make frequent
inquiries on the subject; and it might be relied upon, that if it ever
appeared that a convict was possessed of any of the liquor so supplied by
the commissary, the conduct of those who had thought proper to abuse what
was designed as an accommodation to the officers of the garrison, would
not be passed over unnoticed.'
Some such order had indeed become very necessary; for the American spirit
had by some means or other found its way among the convicts; and, a
discreet use of it being wholly out of the question with those people,
intoxication was become common among them. The free use of spirits had
been hitherto most rigidly prohibited in the colony; that is to say, it
was absolutely forbidden to the convicts. It might therefore have been
expected, that when that restraint was in ever so small a degree removed,
they would break out into acts of disorder and contempt of former
prohibitions. It was therefore indispensable to the preservation of peace
and good order in the settlement, to prevent, if possible, the existence
of so great an evil as drunkenness; which, if suffered, would have been
the parent of every irregularity. The fondness expressed by these people
for even this pernicious American spirit was incredible; they hesitated
not to go any lengths to procure it, and preferred receiving liquor for
labour, to every other article of provisions or clothing that could be
offered them.
The master of the _Kitty_ having represented to the lieutenant-governor
that the conduct of his ship's company was at times so irregular and
mutinous (some of them refusing to do their duty, going on shore and
taking boats from the ship without permission) that he found it
impossible to carry on the business of the ship, unless he could receive
some assistance from the civil authority, the lieutenant-governor
directed one, of whom the master particularly complained, Benjamin
Williams, to receive one hundred lashes, and another, Adams, to receive
twenty-five lashes. This in some measure checked the spirit of
disobedience in the ship, and the duty was carried on better than before.
Her preparations for Norfolk Island however went on but slowly, four or
five of her hands having left her. These, together with some other seamen
who had been left behind from the _Royal Admiral_, were either employed
in the public boats belonging to the colony, or had entered into the New
South Wales corps; into which corps also several convicts of good
character had been lately received, to complete the company that had been
formed from the marines under the command of Captain Johnston. This
company was a valuable addition, being composed of many excellent
soldiers from the marines; who entered into it voluntarily, and whose
conduct had met the entire approbation of their officers.
On the departure of the governor, the house that he had lived in was
taken possession of by the oldest captain of the corps, his apartments in
the officers quarters being confined, and tumbling to pieces.
Divine service was now performed at six o'clock in the morning. For want
of a building dedicated to that purpose, many inconveniences were
suffered, as well by the clergyman as by those who attended him. The
lieutenant-governor therefore did not require the ceremony to be performed
more than once a day; and that the health of the convicts might not be
injured from the heat of the sun, which at this season of the year was
excessive, he directed the church call to be beat at a quarter before six
in the morning. The overseers were enjoined to be particularly careful to
collect as many of their gangs to attend Mr. Johnson as could
conveniently be brought together; for, although it was not wished that
the huts should be left without proper persons to look after them, it was
nevertheless expected, that no idle excuses should keep the convicts from
attending divine service.
On the 10th the _Hope_ sailed for Canton, the master having been allowed
to ship three convicts, whose sentences of transportation had expired;
viz Murphy, a sail-maker; Sheppard, a joiner; and Bateman, a lad who had
been employed as an attendant on an officer.
At six o'clock in the evening of Tuesday the 15th, the signal which
always gave satisfaction in the colony was made at the South Head;
several boats went down, but when night closed it was only known that a
ship was off. A large fire for the information of the stranger was made
at the South Head; and at about ten o'clock the following morning, the
_Bellona_ transport, Mr. Mathew Boyd commander, anchored in the cove from
England; from which place she sailed on the 8th day of August last,
having on board a cargo of stores and provisions for the colony;
seventeen female convicts; five settlers, and their families; Thorpe, a
person engaged as a master millwright at a salary of £100 per annum; and
Walter Broady, who returned to New South Wales to be employed in his
former capacity of master blacksmith. The quaker families which had been
expected for some time past had engaged to take their passage in the
_Bellona_; but it was said, that they had been diverted from their
purpose by some misrepresentations which had been made to them respecting
this country.
Among other articles now received were five pipes of port wine and a
quantity of rum, which were consigned to the governor for the purpose of
being sold to the officers of the civil and military establishments at
prime cost; and three thousand pounds of tobacco for the use of the
soldiers of the garrison and others.
The shameful impositions which had been practised by many who had brought
out articles for sale in the colony, and the advantage which had been
taken in too many instances of our necessities, had been properly stated
at home, and this measure had been adopted by Government for our
accommodation. The wine was immediately distributed; coming to the
officer, after every expense of wharfage, etc. at £19 10s per hogshead,
and the rum at five shillings per gallon. The tobacco was likely to
remain for some time undisposed of, as a quantity had been lately brought
into the settlement, and was selling at a lower price than could be taken
for that imported by this ship; and tobacco formed a material article of
the different investments in the _Britannia_.
With great pleasure we also found that Government, in consequence of the
representations of Governor Phillip, had directed a strong substantial
Russia duck to be substituted for the slight unserviceable Osnaburgs with
which the convicts had been hitherto supplied.
We learned by the _Bellona_, that his Majesty's ship _Gorgon_ arrived at
Spithead on the 19th of June last. In her passage, which she made by Cape
Horn, on the 18th of February last, being in the latitude of 51 degrees
30 minutes S and longitude 34 degrees 07 minutes W variation 13 degrees
37 minutes E she fell in with twenty-nine islands of ice. When the ship
reached within three or four miles of the first of these islands, they
observed one compact body, without the smallest appearance of any opening,
bearing from NNE to WNW and which with some difficulty, being embayed*,
they were enabled to clear, by hauling the ship from N to WSW. This was
done at ten in the forenoon; they did not reach the extreme western point
of the ice until five in the evening; and from the rate at which the ship
sailed, from her coming up with the first island of ice, until she cleared
the north-west point of the field abovementioned, it was computed that she
had run full twenty leagues.
[* When near this great body of ice, the thermometer was as low as
thirty-six degrees; and it rose from that point, as she drew off, to forty
degrees.]
It must be remarked, that the _Sirius_, in the month of December 1788,
saw several islands of ice in nearly the same latitude and longitude.
At the Cape of Good Hope Captain Parker had met with Captain Edwards of
the _Pandora_, who delivered to him Mary Braud, the widow of Bryant, who
escaped to Timor in the fishing cutter, with one of the children, and
only four of the male convicts who accompanied Bryant in his flight.
Bryant died at Batavia, with the other child, and two of his companions;
one of them, James Cox, was said to be drowned in the Straits of Sunda.
On their arrival in England the story of their sufferings in the boat
excited much compassion; and, before the _Bellona_ sailed, they had been
brought up to the bar of the Old Bailey, and ordered by the court to
remain in Newgate until the period of their original sentence of
transportation should expire, there to finish their unsuccessful attempts
to regain their liberty.
While the cargo of the _Bellona_ was landing much of it was found to be
damaged; the ship had been overloaded, and had met with very boisterous
weather on her passage. This practice of crowding too much into one ship
had in many instances been very prejudicial to the colony; in the present
instance, of the Russia duck, which was excellent in its kind, and which
had cost the sum of £6636 0s 9d; sixty-eight bales, containing thirteen
thousand one hundred and forty-eight yards, were damaged; sixty-nine casks
of flour also were found to be much injured. Of seventy-six hogsheads of
molasses, eleven hundred and seventy-two gallons were found to have leaked
out; one cask of pork was stinking and rotten; seventy-nine gallons of
rum, and one hundred and ninety-eight gallons of wine, were deficient,
owing to improper stowage; three hundred and thirty-five hammocks,
thirteen rugs, five hundred and twenty-seven yards of brown cloths, and
one case of stationary, were rendered totally unfit for use. Of the
articles thus found to be unserviceable to the colony, there was not one
which in its proper state would not have been valuable; and when the
expense attending their conveyance, the risk of the passage, the
inconvenience that must be felt from the want of every damaged article,
and the impossibility of getting them replaced for a great length of
time, were considered, it was difficult to ascertain their precise value.
Among the occurrences of this month one appears to deserve particular
notice. On Friday the 18th, Eleanor McCave, the wife of Charles Williams,
the settler, was drowned, together with an infant child, and a woman of
the name of Green. These unfortunate people had been drinking and
revelling with Williams the husband and others at Sydney, and were
proceeding to Parramatta in a small boat, in which was a bag of rice
belonging to Green. The boat heeling considerably, and some water getting
at the bag, by a movement of Green's to save her rice the boat overset
near Breakfast Point, and the two women and the child were drowned. If
assistance could have been obtained upon the spot, the child might have
been saved; for it was forced from the wretched mother's grasp just
before she finally sunk, and brought on shore by the father; but for want
of medical aid it expired. The parents of this child were noted in the
colony for the general immorality of their conduct; they had been rioting
and fighting with each other the moment before they got into the boat;
and it was said, that the woman had imprecated every evil to befal her
and the infant she carried about her (for she was six months gone with
child) if she accompanied her husband to Parramatta. The bodies of these
two unfortunate women were found a few days afterwards, when the wretched
and rascally Williams buried his wife and child within a very few feet of
his own door. The profligacy of this man indeed manifested itself in a
strange manner: a short time after he had thus buried his wife, he was
seen sitting at his door, with a bottle of rum in his hand, and actually
drinking one glass and pouring another on her grave until it was emptied,
prefacing every libation by declaring how well she had loved it during
her life. He appeared to be in a state not far from insanity, as this
anecdote certainly testifies; but the melancholy event had not had any
other effect upon his mind.
The _Kitty_ transport being ready for sea, on Sunday the 20th two
subalterns, three sergeants, three corporals, one drummer, and sixty
privates, of the New South Wales corps, were embarked, for the purpose of
relieving the detachment from that corps now on duty at Norfolk Island
under the command of a captain, who received orders to return to this
settlement.
On board of this ship were also embarked, Mr. Clarke, the deputy-commissary
for Norfolk Island; Mr. Peate, the master carpenter, who came out in the
_Royal Admiral_; two coopers; two tailors; two officers' servants; John
Chapman Morris, Benjamin Ingram (pursuant to the conditional pardon which
he received from Governor Phillip), and a few women: and on the 25th
she sailed.
On Saturday the 26th, the rice being expended, the convicts received
three pounds of flour, and the civil and military one pound of flour in
addition to the former allowance.
In the course of this month the lieutenant-governor judged it necessary
to send an officer to Parramatta, whom he could entrust with the
direction of the convicts employed there and at Toongabbie in
cultivation, as well as to take charge of the public grain. This business
had always been executed by one of the superintendants, under the
immediate inspection and orders of the governor, who latterly had
dedicated the greatest part of his time and attention to these
settlements. But it was attended with infinite fatigue to his excellency;
and the business had now grown so extensive, that it became absolutely
necessary that the person who might have the regulation of it should
reside upon the spot, that he might personally enforce the execution of
his orders, and be at all times ready to attend to the various
applications which were constantly making from settlers.
The lieutenant-governor, therefore (his presence being required at
Sydney, the head-quarters of his regiment, and the seat of the government
of the country) deputed this trust to Lieutenant John Macarthur, of the
New South Wales corps; the superintendants, storekeepers, overseers, and
convicts at the two settlements, being placed under his immediate
inspection.
Charles Gray, a man who had rendered himself notorious in the registers
of this colony by repeated acts of villainy, exhibited himself again to
public view at the close of this month, and at a time when every one
thought him a reclaimed man. He had been sent to Norfolk Island as a
place where he would have fewer opportunities of exercising his predatory
abilities than at Sydney; but the law having spent its force against him,
he returned to this settlement as a free man in September last. On his
declaring that he was able to provide for himself, he was allowed to work
for his own support, and for some time past he had cut wood and drawn
water for a drummer in the New South Wales corps, a man who, by much
self-denial and economy, had got together and laid up thirty-three
guineas, for the prudent and laudable purpose of hereafter apprenticing
his children; but having unfortunately and most indiscreetly suffered
this man to know, not only that he had such a sum, but where he kept it,
Gray availed himself of a convenient opportunity, and carried off the
whole sum, together with a shirt which lay in his way. On being taken up
(for suspicion was directly fixed on him) he readily acknowledged the
theft, and either was, or pretended to be, very much in liquor. On being
urged to restore the property, he sent the watchmen to search for it in
different places, but without directing them to the spot where he had
concealed it. At last he was taken out himself, when accidentally meeting
the lieutenant-governor he threw himself on the ground, pretending to be
in a fit; on which he was directly ordered to be tied up and punished
with one hundred lashes. After this he would not make any discovery, and
was sent to the hospital. The drummer who had suffered so materially by
this wretch, although the object of pity, yet, knowing as he must have
done the character of the man, was certainly entitled to no small degree
of blame for trusting with a secret of such importance to his family a
man who he must have known could not have withstood so great a temptation.
The lieutenant-governor proposing to open and cultivate the ground
commonly known by the name of the Kangaroo Ground, situate to the
westward of the town of Sydney between that settlement and Parramatta, a
gang of convicts was sent from the latter place for that purpose. The
soil here was much better for agriculture than that immediately adjoining
to the town of Sydney, and the ground lay well for cultivation; but it
had hitherto been neglected, from its being deficient in the very
essential requisite of water; on which account Parramatta had been
preferred to it. The eligibility of cultivating it was however now going
to be tried; and, permission having been received by the _Bellona_ to
grant lands to those officers who might desire it, provided the
situations of the allotments were such as might be advantageous to _bona
fide_ settlers hereafter, if they ever should fall into such hands,
several officers chose this as the spot which they would cultivate, and
allotments of one hundred acres each were marked out for the clergyman
(who, to obtain a grant here, relinquished his right to cultivate the
land allotted for the maintenance of a minister), for the principal
surgeon, and for two officers of the corps.
February.] The settlers who came out in the _Bellona_ having fixed on a
situation at the upper part of the harbour above the Flats, and on the
south side, their different allotments were surveyed and marked out; and
early in this month they took possession of their grounds. Being all free
people, one convict excepted, who was allowed to settle with them, they
gave the appellation of '_Liberty Plains_' to the district in which their
farms were situated. The most respectable of these people, and apparently
the best calculated for a _bona fide_ settler, was Thomas Rose, a farmer
from Dorsetshire, who came out with his family, consisting of his wife
and four children. An allotment of one hundred and twenty acres was
marked out for him. With him came also Frederic Meredith, who formerly
belonged to the _Sirius_, Thomas Webb, who also belonged to the _Sirius_,
with his nephew, and Edward Powell, who had formerly been here in the
_Lady Juliana_ transport. Powell having since his arrival married a free
woman, who came out with the farmer's family, and Webb having brought a
wife with him, had allotments of eighty acres marked out for each; the
others had sixty each. The conditions under which they engaged to settle
were, 'To have their passages provided by government*; an assortment of
tools and implements to be furnished them out of the public stores; to be
supplied with two years' provisions; their lands to be granted free of
expense; the service of convicts also to be assigned them free of
expense; and those convicts whose services might be assigned them to be
supplied with two years' rations and one year's clothing.' The convict
who settled with them (Walter Rouse, an industrious quiet man) came out
in the first fleet, and being a bricklayer by trade they thought he might
be of some service to them in constructing their huts. He had an
allotment of thirty acres marked out for him.
[* Government paid for each person above ten years of age the sum of
eight pounds eight shillings; and allowed one shilling _per diem_ for
victualling them; and sixpence _per diem_ for every one under that age.]
Many more officers availed themselves of the assent given by government
to their occupying land, and fixed, some at Parramatta and others in
different parts of the harbour, where they thought the ground most likely
to turn out to their convenience and advantage. They began their
settlements in high spirits; the necessary tools and implements of
husbandry were furnished to them from the stores; and they were allowed
each the use of ten convicts. From their exertions the lieutenant-governor
was sanguine in his hopes of being enabled to increase considerably the
cultivation of the country; they appeared indeed to enter vigorously into
these views, and not being restrained from paying for labour with spirits,
they got a great deal of work done at their several farms (on those days
when the convicts did not work for the public) by hiring the different
gangs; the great labour of burning the timber after it was cut down
requiring some such extra aid.
On the 5th of the month the _Bellona_ was discharged from government
employ. Twenty-one days were allowed for the delivery of her cargo; but,
by taking off the people from the brick carts, and from some other works,
she was cleared within the time. This ship was of four hundred and
fifty-four tons burden, and was paid by government at the rate of four
pounds four shillings per ton per month. A clause was inserted in the
charter-party, forbidding the master to receive any person from the
colony, without the express consent and order of the governor. The
governor was also empowered to take her up for the purposes of the colony
should he want her; but as the _Daedalus_ was expected, and the _Kitty_
was already here, both in the service of government, it was not necessary
to detain her, and she sailed on the 19th for Canton.
The master having been permitted to receive on board two convicts (the
number he requested) whose terms of transportation had expired, consented
to his ship being smoked, when four people were found secreted on board,
two of whom had not yet served the full periods of their sentences.
To prevent this ship's coming on demurrage while her cargo was
delivering, the convicts worked in their own hours, as well as those
allotted to the public, under a promise of having the extra time allowed
them at a future day. While this labour was in hand, the building of the
barracks stood still for want of materials; it therefore became
necessary, when the brick carts could again be manned, to lose no time in
bringing in a sufficient number of bricks to employ the bricklayers. This
having performed, they claimed their extra time, which now amounted to
sixteen days. As it would have proved very inconvenient to have allowed
them to remain unemployed for that number of days, the lieutenant-governor
directed the commissary to issue to each person so employed half a pint
of spirits _per diem_ for sixteen days. Liquor given to them in this way
operated as a benefit and a comfort to them: it was the intemperate use
of spirits, procured at the expense of their clothing or their provisions,
which was to be guarded against, and which operated as a serious evil.
For want of sufficient store-room, it was found necessary to stow a great
part of the wet provisions and flour arrived by the _Bellona_ in tiers
before the provision-store. Care was taken to shelter them from the sun
and from the weather; and when the pile was completed, it was, until the
eye was accustomed to the sight, an object of novelty and wonder; it
never having occurred to us since we first built a store, to have more
provisions than our stores could contain.
Gray, who had recovered from his last punishment, being now again urged
to discover what he had done with the drummer's money, trifled until he
was again punished, and then declared he had buried it in the man's
garden; but being taken to the spot he could not find it, and in fact did
not seem to know where to look for it. It was supposed, that, being in
liquor when he committed the robbery, he was ignorant how he had disposed
of the property, or that it had fallen into the hands of some person too
dishonest to give it to the right owner. He was afterwards sent to the
hospital, whence he made his escape into the woods.
On the evening of Sunday the 24th the signal was made at the South Head,
a short time before dark, but too late to be observed at the settlement;
at nine o'clock, however, information was received by the boat belonging
to the South Head, that a ship from Calcutta was at anchor in the lower
part of the harbour. In the morning she worked up, and anchored just
without the cove. She proved to be the _Shah Hormuzear_, of about four
hundred tons burden, commanded by Mr. Matthew Wright Bampton, from
Calcutta, who had embarked some property on a private speculation for
this country. Mr. Bampton, in September last, had sailed from Bombay,
with a cargo of provisions and stock for this settlement; but when near
the Line, his ship springing a leak, he was obliged to return, and got to
Bengal, where, with the sanction of Lord Cornwallis, he took on board a
fresh cargo for the colony. At Bengal he had met with Captain Manning,
who sailed from hence in the _Pitt_ in April last, and who mentioned to
him such articles as he thought were most wanted in these settlements.
Mr. Bampton had on board when he sailed, one bull, twenty-four cows, two
hundred and twenty sheep, one hundred and thirty goats, five horses, and
six asses; together with a quantity of beef, flour, rice, wheat, gram,
paddy, and sugar; a few pipes of wine, some flat iron, and copper
sufficient for the sloop's bottom which had been received in frame by the
_Pitt_, and which Captain Manning remembered to have been sent out
without that necessary article; a large quantity of spirits, and some
canvas. In the article of stock, however, Mr. Bampton had been very
unfortunate. His cattle died; of the sheep more than half perished; one
horse and three asses died; and very few of the goats survived the
voyage, a voyage by no means a long one, having been performed in eight
weeks wanting three days, and in good weather. This mortality evidently
did not proceed from any want of proper care, but was to be ascribed to
their having been embarked immediately on being taken from the fields,
and consequently wanting that stamina which a sea-voyage required.
The cattle that survived was purchased by the different officers of the
colony, while the other part of the cargo, the spirits and canvas
excepted, were taken by government. The amount of the whole purchased by
government was £9603 5s 6d; for although a supply of provisions had been
lately received from England, it was but a small one, and we were not yet
in possession of that plenty which would have warranted our rejecting a
cargo of provisions, particularly when brought on speculation. The hour
of distress might again arrive, and occasions might occur that would
excite a wish, perhaps in vain, for a cargo of provisions from Bengal. In
addition to these reasons, it must be remarked, that the different
articles which were purchased were of the best quality, and offered on
reasonable terms.
By this ship we received information, that the _Queen_ transport had
arrived safe at Bombay; but it was much feared that the _Admiral
Barrington_, which sailed in company with the _Queen_ from this place on
the 6th of January 1792, was lost, as no accounts had been received of
her at any port in India, a considerable time after her arrival at Bombay
from Batavia might reasonably have been expected. There arrived in the
_Chesterfield_ a person who had been a convict in this country, but who
had been allowed to take his passage on board the _Admiral Barrington_.
This man quitted the _Admiral Barrington_ at Batavia, and got to the Cape
in a Dutch ship, where meeting with Mr. Alt, he embarked with him, and by
the accident which brought the _Chesterfield_ hither returned to this
colony. On his arrival here, he circulated a report, that several of the
convicts who had got on board of these two ships had been landed by order
of the masters at an island which they met with in their passage to
Batavia, inhabited indeed, but by savages; and that those who remained
experienced such inhuman treatment, that they were glad to run away from
them at the first port where any civilised people were to be found. He
was himself among this number, and now declared that he was ready to make
oath to the truth of his relation if it should be required. If there was
any truth in his account, and the masters of these ships did actually
turn any people on shore in the manner already described, it was more
than probable that an act of such apparent cruelty had been occasioned by
some attempt of the convicts to take the ships from them; and the numbers
which were supposed to have been on board (seventeen) rather justified
the supposition. Captain Manning, of the _Pitt_, who had taken from this
settlement twenty men and nine women, found them so useless and
troublesome, that he was very glad to leave the greatest part of them at
Batavia*, and now declared that he regretted ever having received them on
board. When these circumstances should be made public, it was thought
that the masters of ships would not be so desirous of recruiting their
ships' companies from among the inhabitants of this colony.
[* At that grave of Europeans the _Pitt_ lost eighteen of her people.]
The grain called dholl, which had been issued as part of the ration at
the rate of three pints per man per week since the arrival of the
_Atlantic_, was discontinued on the 25th, the whole of that article
having been served out. It had been found useful for stock.
At Toongabbie the workmen were now employed in constructing a barn and
granary upon a very extensive scale.
Among the females who died this month was one, a stout healthy young
woman, of the name of Martha Todd, who came out in the _Mary Ann_, and
fell a victim to a dysenteric complaint, which seized her after drinking
too freely of the pernicious spirits which had been lately introduced
into the colony. The same fate attended James Hatfield, a man who had
been looked upon as a sober good character. He was on the point of
obtaining a grant of land, and came from Parramatta to Sydney for the
purpose of speaking about his allotment, when, unfortunately, he met with
some of his friends, and partaking intemperately of the American rum, he
was seized with a dysentery, which carried him off in a few days. In this
way many others were affected after drinking, through want of a
sufficient stamina to overcome the effect of the spirit.
March.] The repairs of the _Chesterfield_ having been completed, she was
on the point of proceeding to sea, when the lieutenant-governor proposed
to the master for the sum of £120 to take on board a freight of
provisions for Norfolk Island; which he consenting to, she was hauled
alongside the ship from Bengal, and a certain proportion of grain was put
into her; after which, such salt provisions and stores as were intended
to be conveyed by her were sent from the colony, and on the 10th she
sailed for Norfolk Island.
In lieu of the three pints of dholl, which were now discontinued, an
additional pound of flour was served; the civil and military receiving
eight pounds, and the convicts seven pounds of flour per week, from the
9th; and in order to make a little room in the store, and that the
officers might be accommodated with a better kind of flour, they were
permitted to receive from the commissary two casks of American flour
each, which were to be deducted from their ration.
The ship from Bengal, which was manned with Lascars, had no sooner hauled
into the cove, and opened a communication with the shore, than a practice
commenced among the convicts of disposing of the slops and blankets which
they had lately received to the Lascars, who, trembling with the cold
even of this climate, very readily availed themselves of their propensity
to part with them; which was so great, that it became necessary to punish
with severity such offenders as were detected.
On Tuesday the 12th the signal was made at the South Head, and by the
noon of the following day two Spanish ships anchored in the lower part of
the harbour. An officer from one of them arriving at the settlement, we
learned that they were the two ships of whose expected arrival
information had been received from government in the year 1790; and to
whom it was recommended that every attention should be paid. They were
named the _Descuvierta_ and _Atrevida_ (the _Discovery_ and the
_Intrepid_); the former commanded by Don Alexandro Malaspina, with a
broad pendant as the commander of the expedition, and the latter by Don
Jose de Bustamante y Guerra. They had been three years and a half from
Europe on a voyage of discovery and information; and were now arrived
from Manilla, after a passage of ninety-six days; touching in their way
hither at Dusky Bay in New Zealand, from which they had sailed about a
fortnight.
On their coming up, they anchored just abreast of the two points which
form Sydney Cove, declining saluting, as it was not in our power to
return it. These ships were of three hundred and five tons burden each,
and were built for the particular voyage on which they were sent. Great
care was observable in their construction, both as to the strength of the
vessels and the accommodation of the officers and the equipage. They were
well manned, and had, beside the officers customary in king's ships, a
botanist and limner on board each vessel.
They had visited all the Spanish possessions in South America and other
parts of the world, ascertaining with precision their boundaries and
situations; gaining much information respecting their customs and
manners, their importance with regard to the mother country, their
various productions commercial, agricultural, botanical, and mineral. For
all which purposes the officers on board appeared to have been selected
with the happiest success. They most forcibly reminded us of the
unfortunate Count de la Perouse and his followers, of whom these
gentlemen had only heard that they were no more; and for whose destiny
they expressed a feeling arising from their having traversed the ocean in
the same pursuit, and followed in the same path. Equally sincere and
polite as Count de la Perouse, the Spanish commodore paid a tribute to
the abilities and memory of our circumnavigator Cook, in whose steps the
Chevalier Malaspina, who was an Italian marquis and a knight of Malta,
declared it was a pleasure to follow, as it left him nothing to attend
to, but to remark the accuracy of his observations. They lost at the
island of Luconia Don Antonio Pineda, a colonel of the Spanish guards,
who was charged with that department of the expedition which respected
the natural history of the places they visited. They spoke of him in high
terms as a man of science and a gentleman, and favoured us with an
engraving of the monument which they had caused to be erected over his
grave at the place where he died; and from which the following
inscription was copied:
ANTONIO . PINEDA .
Tribuno . Militum .
Virtute . In . Patriam . Bello . Armisque . Insigni .
Naturae . Demum . Indefesso . Scrutatori .
Trienni . Arduo . Itinere . Orbis . Extrema . Adiit .
Telluris . Viscera . Pelagi . Abyssos . Andiumque . Cacumina. Lustrans .
Vitae . Simul . Et . Laborum . Gravium .
Diem . Supremum . Obiit . In . Luconia . Phillipicarum .
VI Calendas . Julii . M.D.C.C.X.C.II.
Prematuram . Optimi . Mortem .
Luget . Patria . Luget . Fauna . Lugent . Amici .
Qui . Hocce . Posuere . Monumenturn .
The monument was designed by Don Fernando Brambila, the landscape-painter
on board the _Atrevida_; and the inscription did credit to the classical
knowledge of Senor Don Fadeo Heencke, the botanist on board the
_Descuvierta_.
Having requested permission to erect an observatory, they chose the point
of the cove on which a small brick hut had been built for Bennillong by
Governor Phillip, making use of the hut to secure their instruments. They
did not profess to be in want of much assistance; but such as they did
require was directed to be furnished them without any expense; it was
indeed too inconsiderable to become an object of charge.
The arrival of these strangers, together with that of the ship from
Bengal, gave a pleasant diversity to the dull routine that commonly
prevailed in the town of Sydney; everyone striving to make their abode
among us as cheerful as possible, and to convince them, that though
severed from the mother country, and residing in woods and among savages,
we had not forgotten the hospitalities due to a stranger.
The commission of offences was now so frequent, that it had become
necessary to assemble the criminal court during this month; and William
Ashford, a lad who had been drummed out of the New South Wales corps, was
tried for stealing several articles of wearing apparel from some of the
convicts; of which being convicted, he was sentenced to receive three
hundred lashes.
On the 21st the _Kitty_ returned from Norfolk Island, having on board
Captain Paterson and his company of the new corps, together with a number
of free people and convicts; amounting in all to one hundred and
seventy-two persons; Governor King having been desired to get rid of any
such characters as might be dangerous or troublesome to him.
Mr. King wrote very favourably of the state of the settlements, under his
command. The crops of wheat and maize had produced so abundantly, as to
insure him a sufficiency of that article for the next twelve months. The
inhabitants were healthy; and such had been the effects of some wholesome
regulations, and the attention of the magistrates to enforce them, that
for the last three months not any offence deserving of punishment had
been committed, nor a cob of corn purloined either of private or public
property.
At the departure of the _Kitty_, he was busied in erecting some necessary
buildings, as barracks, a granary, storehouses, etc. and had completed a
very excellent house for his own use. Lime-stone having been found in
great abundance on Norfolk Island, enabled him to build with some extent
and security than had hitherto been done even in New South Wales. Several
casks of this useful article were now imported in the _Kitty_, with a
quantity of plank.
Captain Johnston's company in the new corps received some addition by
this ship. Eight of the marine settlers, whose grounds, on extending the
lines of their allotments, were found to intersect each other, and who
had declined such accommodation as Governor King thought it proper to
offer them, had resigned their farms, and preferred returning to their
former profession.
Toward the latter end of the month information was received of some
nefarious practices which had been carrying on at the store at
Parramatta; the sum of which was, that the two convicts who had been
employed in issuing the provisions under the storekeeper had been for
some time in the habit of serving out on each issuing-day an extra
allowance of provisions to one, or occasionally to two messes. The messes
consisted of six people, and one of these six (taking any mess he chose)
used to be previously informed by one or other of the convicts who served
the provisions, that an extra allowance for the whole mess would be
served to him, which he was to receive and convey away, taking care to
return the allowance to them at night, then to be divided into three
shares. To accomplish this fraud, an opportunity was to be taken of the
storekeeper's absence, which might happen during the course of a long
serving, and for which they took care to watch. On his return the mess
for which one allowance had just been served was publicly called, and the
whole served a second time. With this practice they had trusted nine or
ten different people; and the wife of one man, who had assisted in the
crime, in a fit of drunkenness confessed the whole.
On examination before the judge-advocate it appeared, in addition to the
above circumstances, that this scheme had been carried on for about two
months past; but there was little doubt of its having existed much
longer.
It was no difficult matter to discover the persons who had assisted in
this practice; and on their being taken up several confessed the share
that they and others had had in it: upon which the lieutenant-governor
ordered them all to be severely punished.
In the _Kitty_ arrived one of the superintendants who had at Norfolk
Island been employed in manufacturing the flax plant; but which, for want
of some necessary tools, he could not bring to much perfection. These had
been written for to England, and he came hither to be employed at these
settlements till they should arrive. He was now sent up to Toongabbie, to
superintend the delivery of provisions at that place.
Notwithstanding the orders which had been given respecting spirits being
in the possession of the convicts, on a search made in some suspected
houses, fourteen or fifteen gallons were found in one night; and, being
seized by the watchmen and the guard, were divided among them as a
stimulus to future vigilance. The evil effect of this spirit was
perceptible in the number of prisoners which were to be found every
morning in the watch-house; for, when intoxicated, it could not be
expected that people of this description would be very careful to avoid
breaking the peace.