The _Boddingtons_ and _Sugar Cane_ sail
A mill erected
Thefts committed
Convicts emancipated
Two persons killed by lightning
The _Fairy_ arrives
Farms sold
Public works
The _Francis_ returns from New Zealand
The _Fairy_ sails
Ration altered
Transactions
Harvest begun
Criminal Court held
A convict executed
Provisions
Mill at Parramatta
Christmas Day
Natives
Convicts
Boats
Grants of land
Settlers
Public works
Expenses how to be calculated
Deaths in 1793
Prices of grain, stock, and labour
October.] The _Boddingtons_ and _Sugar Cane_ being both bound for the
same port in India (Bengal) the masters agreed to proceed together; and
on the 13th, the _Sugar Cane_ having set up her rigging, and hurried
through such refitting as was indispensably necessary, both ships left
the harbour with a fair wind, purposing to follow in the _Atlantic's_
track. The master of the _Boddingtons_ was furnished by us with a copy of
a chart made on board the _Pitt_ Indiaman, and brought hither by the
_Britannia_, of a passage or channel found by that ship in the land named
by Lieutenant Shortland New Georgia; which channel was placed in the
latitude of 8 degrees 30 minutes S and in the longitude of 158 degrees 30
minutes E and named 'Manning's Straits,' from the commander of the
_Pitt_.
The master of the _Sugar Cane_, had he been left to sail alone,
determined to have tried the passage to India by the way of the South
Cape of this country, instead of proceeding to the northward, and seemed
not to have any doubt of meeting with favourable winds after rounding the
cape. By their proceeding together, however, it remained yet to be
determined, whether a passage to India round the South Cape of this
country was practicable, and whether it would be a safer and a shorter
route than one through Endeavour or Torres Strait, the practicability of
which was likewise undetermined as to any knowledge which was had of it
in this colony.
Seven persons whose terms of transportation had expired, were permitted
to quit the colony in these ships, and the master of the _Sugar Cane_ had
shipped Benjamin Williams, the last of the _Kitty's_ people who remained
undisposed of. One free woman, the wife of a convict, took her passage in
the _Sugar Cane_.
Notwithstanding the facility with which passages from this place were
procured (very little more being required by the masters than permission
to receive them, and that the parties should find their own provisions)
it was found after the departure of these ships that some convicts had,
by being secreted on board, made their escape from the colony; and two
men, whose terms as convicts had expired, were brought up from the _Sugar
Cane_ the day she sailed, having got on board without permission; for
which the lieutenant-governor directed them to be punished with fifty
lashes each, and sent up to Toongabbie.
Early in the month an alteration took place in the weekly ration, the
four pounds of wheat served to the convicts were discontinued, and a
substitution of one pint of rice, and two pints of gram (an East India
grain resembling dholl) took place. The serving of wheat was discontinued
for the purpose of issuing it as flour; to accomplish which a mill had
been constructed by a convict of the name of James Wilkinson, who came to
this country in the _Neptune_. His abilities as a millwright had hitherto
lain dormant, and perhaps would longer have continued so, had they not
been called forth by a desire of placing himself in competition with
Thorpe the millwright sent out by government.
His machine was a walking mill, the principal wheel of which was fifteen
feet in diameter, and was worked by two men; while this wheel was
performing one revolution, the mill-stones performed twenty. As it was in
opposition to the public millwright that he undertook to construct this
mill, he of course derived no assistance whatever from Thorpe's knowledge
of the business, and had to contend not only with his opinion, but the
opinion of such as he could prejudice against him. The heavy part of the
work, cutting and bringing in the timber, and afterwards preparing it,
was performed by his fellow-prisoners, who gave him their labour
voluntarily. He was three months and five days from taking it in hand to
his offering it for the first trial. On this trial it was found defective
in some of the machinery, which was all constructed of the timber of the
country, and not properly seasoned. Its effects in grinding were various;
at first it would grind no more than two bushels an hour; with some
alteration, it ground more, and did for some time complete four bushels;
it afterwards ground less, and at the end of the month produced not more
than one bushel. Had the whole of the machinery been upon a larger scale,
there was reason to suppose it would have answered every expectation of
the most interested. The constructor, however, had a great deal of merit,
and perceiving himself what the defects were in this, he undertook to
make another upon a larger scale at Sydney, and on an improved plan. For
this purpose, all the artificers and a gang of convicts were brought down
from Parramatta, and were first employed in forming a timber-yard at
Petersham, two hundred feet square.
At that place, a small district in the neighbourhood of Sydney so named
by the lieutenant-governor, nine huts for labouring convicts were built,
and sixty acres of government ground cleared of timber, twenty of which
were sown with Indian corn. This was the only addition made to the public
ground this season; and the sole difference that was observable in the
progress of our cultivation consisted in sowing this year with wheat a
large portion of that ground which last year grew Indian corn. The
weather throughout the month continued extremely favourable for wheat.
The number of convicts which it was intended to receive for the present
into the New South Wales corps being determined, a warrant of
emancipation passed the seal of the territory, giving conditional freedom
to twenty three persons of that description, seven of whom were
transported for life, and three had between six and nine years to serve,
having been sent out for fourteen. The condition of the pardon was, their
continuing to serve in the corps into which they had enlisted until they
should be regularly discharged therefrom.
Several instances of irregularity and villainy among the convicts
occurred during this month. From Parramatta, information was received,
that in the night of the 15th four people broke into the house of John
Randall, a settler, where with large bludgeons they had beaten and nearly
murdered two men who lived with him. The hands and faces of these
miscreants were blackened; and it was observed, that they did not speak
during the time they were in the hut. It was supposed, that they were
some of the new-comers, and meant to rob the house; and this they would
have effected, but for the activity of the two men whom they attacked,
and for the resistance which they met with from them. At this time seven
of the male convicts lately arrived from Ireland, with one woman, had
absconded into the woods. Some of these people were afterwards brought in
to Parramatta, where they confessed that they had planned the robbing of
the millhouse, the governor's, and other houses; and that they were to be
visited from time to time in their places of concealment by others of
their associates who were to reside in the town, and to supply them with
provisions, and such occasional information as might appear to be
necessary to their safety. They also acknowledged that the assault at
Randall's hut was committed by them and their companions.
About the same time the house of Mr. Atkins at Parramatta was broken
into, and a large quantity of provisions, and a cask of wine, removed
from his store-room to the garden fence, where they left them on being
discovered and pursued. They, however, got clear off, though without
their booty.
At Sydney, in the night of the 26th, a box belonging to John Sparrow (a
convict) was broke open, and three watches stolen out, one of which with
the seals had cost thirty-two guineas, and belonged to an officer. This
theft was committed at the hospital, where Sparrow was at the time a
patient, although able to work occasionally at his business; and being a
young man of abilities as a watchmaker, and of good character, was
employed by most of the gentlemen of the settlement. Suspicion fell upon
a notorious thief who was in the same ward, and who had some time before
proposed to another man to take the box. On his examination he accused
two others of the theft, but with such equivocation in his tale as
clearly proved the falsehood of it. As there was no evidence against him,
except the proposal just mentioned, he was discharged, and during the
month nothing was heard of the watches. An old man belonging to the
hospital was robbed at the same time of eight guineas and some dollars,
which he had got together for the purpose of paying for his passage and
provisions in any ship that would take him home.
During a storm of rain and thunder which happened in the afternoon of
Saturday the 26th, two convict lads Dennis Reardon and William Meredith,
who were employed in cutting wood just by the town when the rain
commenced, ran to a tree for shelter, where they were found the next
morning lying dead, together with a dog which followed them. There was no
doubt that the shelter which they sought had proved their destruction,
having been struck dead by lightning, one or two flashes of which had
been observed to be very vivid and near. One of them, when he received
the stroke, had his hands in his bosom; the hands of the other were
across his breast, and he seemed to have had something in them. The
pupils of their eyes were considerably dilated, and the tongue of each,
as well as that of the dog, was forced out between the teeth. Their faces
were livid, and the same appearance was visible on several parts of their
bodies. The tree at the foot of which they were found was barked at the
top, and some of its branches torn off. In the evening they were decently
buried in one grave, to which they were attended by many of their
fellow-prisoners. Mr. Johnson, to a discourse which he afterwards
preached on the subject, prefixed as a text these words from the first
book of Samuel, chap xx verse 3. 'There is but a step between me and
death.'
This was the first accident of the kind that, to our knowledge, had
occurred in the colony, though lightning more vivid and alarming had
often been seen in storms of longer duration.
While every one was expecting our colonial vessel, the _Francis_, from
New Zealand. the signal for a sail was made on the 29th; and shortly
after the _Fairy_, an American snow, anchored in the cove from Boston in
New England, and last from the island of St. Paul, whence she had a
passage of only four weeks. The master, Mr. Rogers, touched at False
Bay; but from there not having been any recent arrivals from Europe, he
procured no other intelligence at that port, than what we had already
received. At the island of St. Paul he found five seamen who had been
left there from a ship two years before, and who had procured several
thousand seal-skins. They informed him, that Lord Macartney in his
Majesty's ship the _Lion_, and the _Hindostan_ East-Indiaman, had
touched there in their way to China, and Mr. Rogers expected to have
heard that his lordship had visited this settlement.
The _Fairy_ was to proceed from this place to the north-west coast of
America, where the master hoped to arrive the first for the fur market.
Thence he was to go to China with his skins, and from China back to St.
Paul, where he had left a mate and two sailors. Their success was to
regulate his future voyages.
Mr. Rogers expressed a surprise that we had not any small craft on the
coast, as he had observed a plentiful harvest of seals as he came along.
He came in here merely to refresh, not having any thing on board for
sale, his cargo consisting wholly of articles of traffic for the
north-west coast of America.
Charles Williams, the settler so often mentioned in this narrative,
wearied of being in a state of independence, sold his farm with the
house, crop, and stock, for something less than one hundred pounds, to an
officer of the New South Wales corps, Lieutenant Cummings, to whose
allotment of twenty-five acres Williams's ground was contiguous. James
Ruse also, the owner of Experiment farm, anxious to return to England,
and disappointed in his present crop, which he had sown too late, sold
his estate with the house and some stock (four goats and three sheep) for
forty pounds. Both these people had to seek employment until they could
get away; and Williams was condemned to work as a hireling upon the
ground of which he had been the master. But he was a stranger to the
feelings which would have rendered this circumstance disagreeable to him.
The allotment of thirty acres, late in the possession of James Richards,
a settler at the Ponds, deceased, was put into the occupation of a
private soldier of the New South Wales corps; and a grant of thirty acres
at the Eastern Farms was purchased for as many pounds by another soldier.
The greatest inconvenience attending this transfer of landed property
was the return of such a miscreant as Williams, and others of his
description, to England, to be let loose again upon the public. The land
itself came into the possession of people who were interested in making
the most of it, and who would be more studious to raise plentiful crops
for market.
Building and covering the new barrack, and bringing in timber for the new
mill-house, which was not to be built of brick, formed the principal
labour of this month at Sydney. The shipwrights were employed in putting
up the frame of a long-boat purchased of the master of the _Britannia_,
and repairing the hoy, which had been lying for some months useless for
want of repairs, having been much injured by the destructive worm that
was found in the waters of this cove.
At the other settlements the convicts were employed in planting the
Indian corn. About four hundred and twenty acres were planted with that
article for this season's crop.
November.] In the night of Thursday the 7th of November, the _Francis_
schooner anchored in the cove from Dusky Bay in New Zealand; her long
absence from this place (nearly nine weeks) having been occasioned by
meeting with contrary and heavy gales of wind. The alteration which had
been made in this vessel by rigging her as a schooner instead of a sloop,
for which she was built, was found to have materially affected her
sailing; for a schooner she was too short, and, for want of proper sail,
she did not work well. Four times she was blown off the coast of New
Zealand, the _Britannia_ having anchored in Dusky Bay sixteen days before
the _Francis_.
Mr. Raven found in health and safety all the people whom he had left
there. They had procured him only four thousand five hundred seal-skins,
having been principally occupied in constructing a vessel to serve them
in the event of any accident happening to the _Britannia_. This they had
nearly completed when Mr. Raven arrived. She was calculated to measure
about sixty-five tons, and was chiefly built of the spruce fir, which
Mr. Raven stated to be the fittest wood he had observed there for
ship-building, and which might be procured in any quantity or of any
size. The carpenter of the _Britannia_, an ingenious man, and master of
his profession, compared it to English oak for durability and strength.
The natives had never molested the _Britannia's_ people: indeed they
seemed rather to abhor them; for if, by chance, in their excursions,
which were but very few, they visited and left any thing in a hut, they
were sure, on their next visit, to find the hut pulled down, and their
present remaining where it had been left. Some few articles which
Mr. Raven had himself placed in a hut, when he touched there to establish
his little fishery, were found three months after by his people in the
same spot.
Their weather had been very bad; severe gales of wind from the north-west
and heavy rains often impeding their fishery and other labour. A shock of
an earthquake too had been felt. They had an abundance of fresh
provisions, ducks, wood-hens, and several other fowl; and they caught
large quantities of fish. The soil, to a great depth, appeared to be
composed of decayed vegetable substances.
From Mr. Raven, who had waited some days for the appearance of the
_Francis_, the master received such assistance as he stood in need of;
and on the 20th of October she sailed from Dusky Bay, in company with the
_Britannia_, with whom she parted immediately, leaving her to pursue her
voyage to Bengal.
Nothing appeared by this information from Dusky Bay, that held out
encouragement to us to make any use of that part of New Zealand. So
little was said of the soil, or face of the country, that no judgment
could be formed of any advantages which might be expected from attempting
to cultivate it; a seal fishery there was not an object with us at
present, and, beside, it did not seem to promise much. The time, however,
that the schooner was absent was not wholly misapplied; as we had the
satisfaction of learning the event of a rather uncommon speculation, that
of leaving twelve people for ten months on so populous an island, the
inhabitants whereof were known to be savages, fierce and warlike. We
certainly may suppose that these people were unacquainted with the
circumstance of there being any strangers near them; and that
consequently they had not had any communication with the few miserable
beings who were occasionally seen in the coves of Dusky Bay.
A few days after the arrival of the _Francis_, Mr. Rogers sailed for
China, taking with him two women and three men who had received
permission to quit the colony. On board of the _Fairy_ was found a
convict, John Crow, who for some offence had been confined in the
military guardhouse at Parramatta, whence he found means to make his
escape, and reached Sydney in time to swim on board the American. On
being brought on shore he received a slight punishment, and was confined
in the black hole at the guardhouse at Sydney, out of which he escaped a
night or two after, by untiling a part of the roof. After this he was not
heard of, till the watch apprehended him at Parramatta, where he had
broken into two houses, which he had plundered, and was caught with the
property upon him.
The frequency of enormous offences had rendered it necessary to inflict a
punishment that should be more likely to check the commission of crimes
than mere flagellation at the back of the guardhouse, or being sent to
Toongabbie. Crow, therefore, was lodged in the custody of the civil
power, and ordered for trial by the court of criminal judicature.
During the time the _Fairy_ lay at anchor in this cove, a sergeant and
three privates of the New South Wales corps were sent and remained on
board, for the purpose of preventing all improper visitations from the
shore, and inspecting whatever might be either received into or sent from
the ship in a suspicious manner: a regulation from which the master
professed to have found essential service, as he thereby kept his decks
free from idle or bad people, and his seamen went on unmolested with the
duty of the vessel.
On Saturday the 23rd, the flour and rice in store being nearly expended,
the ration was altered to the following proportions of those articles,
viz:
To the officers, civil and military, soldiers, overseers, and the
settlers from free people, were served, of biscuit or flour 2 pounds;
wheat 2 pounds; Indian corn 5 pounds; peas 3 pints.
To the male convicts were served, women and children receiving in the
proportions always observed, (of biscuit or flour, none, and for the
first time since the establishment of the colony) wheat 3 pounds; Indian
corn 5 pounds; paddy 2 pints; gram 2 pints.
This was universally felt as the worst ration that had ever been served
from his Majesty's stores; and by the labouring convict particularly so,
as no one article of grain was so prepared for him as to be immediately
made use of. The quantity that was now to be ground, and the numbers who
brought grain to the mill, kept it employed all the night as well as the
day; and as, from the scarcity of mills, every man was compelled to wait
for his turn, the day had broke, and the drum beat for labour, before
many who went into the mill house at night had been able to get their
corn ground. The consequence was, that many, not being able to wait,
consumed their allowance unprepared. By the next Saturday, a quantity
of wheat sufficient for one serving having been passed through the large
mill at Parramatta, the convicts received their ration of that article
ground coarse.
The lumber yard near Sydney being completed, the convict millwright
Wilkinson was preparing his new mill with as much expedition as he could
use; and John Baughan, an ingenious man, formerly a convict, had
undertaken to build another mill upon a construction somewhat different
from that of Wilkinson's, in which he was assisted by some artificers of
the regiment. Both these mills were to be erected on the open spot of
ground formerly used as a parade by the marine battalion.
Short as was the quantity of flour in store, we did not, however, despair
of being able to issue some meal of this season's growth before it could
be entirely expended. About the middle of the month, the wheat that was
sown in April last, about ninety acres, being perfectly ripe, the harvest
commenced, and from that quantity of ground it was calculated that
upwards of twenty-two bushels an acre would be received. Most of the
settlers had also begun to reap; and they, as well as others who had
grown that grain, were informed, that 'Wheat properly dried and cleaned
would be received at Sydney by the commissary at ten shillings the
bushel; but that none could be purchased from any other persons than
those who had grown it on their own farms; neither could any be taken
into the stores at Parramatta.'
The precaution of receiving wheat only from those persons who had raised
it on their own farms was intended to prevent the petty and rascally
traffic which would otherwise have been carried on between free people
off the stores and persons who might employ them to sell the fruits of
their depredations on the public and other grounds.
December.] Early in this month a criminal court was assembled, at which
Charles Williams, a boy of fourteen years of age, and John Bevan, a
notorious offender, though also very young, were tried for breaking into
a house at Toongabbie; but, for want of evidence, were acquitted. John
Crow was also tried for the burglary in the hut at Parramatta, out of
which he had stolen a quantity of wearing apparel and provisions; and,
being clearly convicted, he received sentence of death.
An idea very generally prevailed among the ignorant part of the convicts,
that the lieutenant-governor was not authorised to cause a sentence of
death to be carried into execution, a notion that was in their minds
confirmed by the mercy which he had extended to Samuel Wright, who was
pardoned by him in July. It became, therefore, absolutely necessary, for
their own sakes, to let them see that he was not only possessed of the
power, but that he would also exercise it. On this account the prisoner,
after petitioning more than once for a respite, which he received, was
executed on Tuesday the 10th, eight days after his trial. There did not
exist in the colony at this time a fitter object for example than John
Crow. Unfortunately, the poor wretch to his last moment cherished the
idea that he should not suffer; and consequently could have been but ill
prepared for the change he was about to experience. He had endeavoured to
effect his escape by jumping down a privy a few hours before his
execution; and it was afterwards found, that he had with much ingenuity
removed some bricks in the wall of the hole in which he was confined,
whence, had he obtained the respite of another day, he would easily have
escaped.
Independent of the consideration that this man had long been a proper
object of severe punishment, to have pardoned him (even on any condition)
would only have tended to strengthen the supposition that the
lieutenant-governor had not the power of life and death; and many daring
burglaries and other enormities would have followed. Crow pretended that
he was in the secret respecting the watches which were stolen from the
hospital in October last; but all that he knew amounted to nothing that
could lead to a discovery either of them or of the thief. He did not
appear to be at all commiserated or regretted by any of his fellow
prisoners; a certain proof of the absence of every good quality in his
character.
In the night of the 6th, during a violent storm of rain and thunder, a
long-boat, which had arrived in the evening from Parramatta with grain
for the next day's serving, and was then lying at the wharf on the west
side under the care of a sentinel, filled with the quantity of water
which ran from the wharf, and sunk. By this accident two hundred and
eighty bushels of Indian corn in cob, and a few bushels of wheaten meal,
were totally lost. The natives who could dive availed themselves of the
circumstance, and recovered a great quantity of the corn, of which they
were very fond. The boats were not injured.
Sudden storms of this kind were frequent; and gusts of wind have been so
sudden and violent, that ships, loosely moored, have driven at their
anchors in the cove.
On Saturday the 7th a change took place in the ration; this was, the
discontinuing of the three pints of peas which were served to the civil
and military, and the three pints of gram which were served to the
convicts, and giving them instead an equal quantity of wheat.
Notwithstanding every supply of flour which had been purchased, or
received into the store from England, it was at length entirely
exhausted; the civil and military receiving the last on Monday the 9th.
This total deprivation of so valuable, so essential an article in the
food of man happened, fortunately, at a season when its place could in
some measure be supplied immediately, the harvest having been all safely
got in at Toongabbie by the beginning of this month. About the middle of
it, eight hundred bushels were threshed out, and on Monday the 16th the
civil and military received each seven pounds of wheat coarsely ground at
the mill at Parramatta. This mill, from the brittleness of the timber
with which it was constructed, was found to be unequal to the consumption
of the settlements. The cogs frequently broke, and hence it was not of
any very great utility. To remedy this inconvenience, a convict
blacksmith undertook to produce one iron hand-mill each week, for which
he was to be paid at the rate of two guineas; and by his means several
mills were distributed in the settlements.
The salt meat being the next article which threatened a speedy
expenditure, on Saturday the 28th one pound was taken from the weekly
allowance of beef; and but a small quantity of Indian corn remaining in
store, the male convicts received eight pounds of new wheat, whole; and
only three pounds of Indian corn, or paddy, were served.
On Christmas day, the Reverend Mr. Johnson preached to between thirty and
forty persons only, though on a provision day some four or five hundred
heads were seen waiting round the storehouse doors. The evening produced
a watchhouse full of prisoners; several were afterwards punished, among
whom were some servants for stealing liquor from an officer.
The passion for liquor was so predominant among the people, that it
operated like a mania, there being nothing which they would not risk to
obtain it: and while spirits were to be had, those who did any extra
labour refused to be paid in money, or any other article than spirits,
which were now, from their scarcity, sold at six shillings per bottle.
Webb, the settler near Parramatta, having procured a small still from
England, found it more advantageous to draw an ardent diabolical spirit
from his wheat, than to send it to the store and receive ten shillings
per bushel from the commissary. From one bushel of wheat he obtained
nearly five quarts of spirit, which he sold or paid in exchange for
labour at five and six shillings per quart.
McDonald, a settler at the Field of Mars, made a different and a better
use of the produce of his farm. Having a mill, he ground and dressed his
wheat, and sold it to a baker at Sydney at fourpence per pound, procuring
forty-four pounds of good flour from a bushel of wheat, which was taken
at fifty-nine pounds. This person also killed a wether sheep (the produce
of what had been given to him by Governor Phillip) at Christmas, and sold
it at two shillings per pound, each quarter weighing about fifteen
pounds.
The town of Sydney had this year increased considerably; not fewer than
one hundred and sixty huts, beside five barracks, having been added since
the departure of Governor Phillip. Some of these huts were large, and to
each of them upwards of fourteen hundred bricks were allowed for a
chimney and floor. These huts extended nearly to the brickfields, whence
others were building to meet them, and thus to unite that district with
the town.
About the latter end of the month a large party of the natives attacked
some settlers who were returning from Parramatta to Toongabbie, and took
from them all the provisions which they had just received from the store.
By flying immediately into the woods, they eluded all pursuit and search.
They were of the Hunter's or Woodman's tribe, people who seldom came
among us, and who consequently were little known.
The natives who lived about Sydney appeared to place the utmost
confidence in us, choosing a clear spot between the town and the
brickfield for the performance of any of their rites and ceremonies; and
for three evenings the town had been amused with one of their spectacles,
which might properly have been denominated a tragedy, for it was attended
with a great effusion of blood. It appeared from the best account we
could procure, that one or more murders having been committed in the
night, the assassins, who were immediately known, were compelled,
according to the custom of the country, to meet the relations of the
deceased, who were to avenge their deaths by throwing spears, and drawing
blood for blood. One native of the tribe of Cammerray, a very fine fellow
named Carradah*, who had stabbed another in the night, but not mortally,
was obliged to stand for two evenings exposed to the spears not only of
the man whom he had wounded, but of several other natives. He was
suffered indeed to cover himself with a bark shield, and behaved with the
greatest courage and resolution. Whether his principal adversary (the
wounded man) found that he possessed too much defensive skill to admit of
his wounding him, or whether it was a necessary part of his punishment,
was not known with any certainty; but on the second day that Carradah had
been opposed to him and his party, after having received several of their
spears on his shield, without sustaining any injury, he suffered the
other to pin his left arm (below the elbow) to his side, without making
any resistance; prevented, perhaps, by the uplifted spears of the other
natives, who could easily have destroyed him, by throwing at him in
different directions. Carradah stood, for some time after this, defending
himself, although wounded in the arm which held the shield, until his
adversaries had not a whole spear left, and had retired to collect the
fragments and piece them together. On his sitting down his left hand
appeared to be very much convulsed, and Mr. White was of opinion that the
spear had pierced one of the nerves. The business was resumed when they
had repaired their weapons, and the fray appeared to be general, men,
women, and children mingling in it, giving and receiving many severe
wounds, before night put an end to their warfare.
[* So he was called among his own people before he knew us; but having
exchanged names with Mr. Ball (who commanded the _Supply_,) he went
afterwards by that name, which they had corrupted into Midjer Bool.]
What rendered this sort of contest as unaccountable as it was
extraordinary was, that friendship and alliance were known to subsist
between several that were opposed to each other, who fought with all the
ardour of the bitterest enemies, and who, though wounded, pronounced the
party by whom they had been hurt to be good and brave, and their friends.
Possessing by nature a good habit of body, the combatants very soon
recovered of their wounds; and it was understood, that Carradah, or
rather Midjer Bool, had not entirely expiated his offence, having yet
another trial to undergo from some natives who had been prevented by
absence from joining in the ceremonies of that evening.
About this time several houses were attempted to be broken into; many
thefts were committed; and the general behaviour of the convicts was far
from that _propriety_ which ought to have marked them. The offences were
various, and several punishments were of necessity inflicted. The Irish
who came out in the last ships were, however, beginning to show symptoms
of better dispositions than they landed with, and appeared only to
dislike hard labour.
Among the conveniencies that were now enjoyed in the colony must be
mentioned the introduction of passage-boats, which, for the benefit of
settlers and others, were allowed to go between Sydney and Parramatta.
They were the property of persons who had served their respective terms
of transportation; and from each passenger one shilling was required for
his passage; luggage was paid for at the rate of one shilling per cwt;
and the entire boat could be hired by one person for six shillings. This
was a great accommodation to the description of people whom it was
calculated to serve, and the proprietors of the boats found it very
profitable to themselves.
The boat-builders and shipwrights found occupation enough for their
leisure hours, in building boats for those who could afford to pay them
for their labour. Five and six gallons of spirits was the price, and five
or six days would complete a boat fit to go up the harbour; but many of
them were very badly put together, and threatened destruction to whoever
might unfortunately be caught in them with a sail up in blowing weather.
On the 24th ten grants of land passed the seal of the territory, and
received the lieutenant-governor's signature. Five allotments of
twenty-five acres each, and one of thirty, were given to six
non-commissioned officers of the New South Wales corps, who had chosen an
eligible situation nearly midway between Sydney and Parramatta; and who,
in conjunction with four other settlers, occupied a district to be
distinguished in future by the name of _Concord_. These allotments
extended inland from the water's side, within two miles of the district
named Liberty Plains.
The settlers at this latter place appeared to have very unproductive
crops, having sown their wheat late. They were, indeed, of opinion, that
they had made a hasty and bad choice of situation; but this was nothing
more than the language of disappointment, as little judgment could be
formed of what any soil in this country would produce until it had been
properly worked, dressed, cleansed, and purged of that sour quality that
was naturally inherent in it, which it derived from the droppings of wet
from the leaves of gum and other trees, and which were known to be of an
acrid destructive nature.
Another barrack for officers was got up this month at Sydney; but, for
want of tiles, was only partly covered in. The millwrights Wilkinson and
Baughan had got up the frames and roofs of their respective mill-houses,
and, while waiting for their being tiled, were proceeding with preparing
the wood-work of their mills.
The great want of tiles that was occasionally felt, proceeded from there
being only one person in the place who was capable of moulding tiles, and
he could never burn more than thirty thousand tiles in six weeks, being
obliged to burn a large quantity of bricks in the same kilns. It required
near sixty-nine thousand bricks to complete the building of one barrack,
and twenty-one thousand tiles to cover it in. The number of tiles
rendered useless by carriage, and destroyed in the kilns, was estimated
at about three thousand in each kiln, and fifteen thousand were generally
burnt off at a time.
To furnish bricks for these barracks, and other buildings, three gangs
were constantly at work, finding employment for three overseers and about
eighty convicts.
To convey these materials from the brickfield to the barrack-ground, a
distance of about three-quarters of a mile, three brick-carts were
employed, each drawn by twelve men, under the direction of one overseer.
Seven hundred tiles, or three hundred and fifty bricks, were brought by
each cart, and every cart in the day brought either five loads of bricks,
or four of tiles. To bring in the timber necessary for these and other
buildings, four timber-carriages were employed, each being drawn by
twenty-four men. In addition to these, to each carriage were annexed two
fallers, and one overseer, making a total of two hundred and twenty-eight
men, who must be employed in any such heavy labour as the building of a
barrack or a storehouse, exclusive of the sawyers, carpenters, smiths,
painters, glaziers, and stonemasons, without whose labour they could not
be completed.
The expense of victualling and clothing these people (both their
provisions and the materials for making their clothes being augmented
above their prime cost, by freight and by the cost of what might be
damaged and useless) must be supposed to be considerable; and must be
taken into account, together with the cost of tools and of such materials
as were not to be procured in the country, when calculating the expenses
of the public works erected in this colony.
There died between the 1st of January and 31st of December, both
inclusive, two settlers, seven soldiers, seventy-eight male convicts,
twenty-six female convicts, and twenty-nine children. One male convict
was executed; six male convicts were lost in the woods; one male convict
was found dead in the woods; one male convict was killed by the fall of a
tree, and two male convicts were killed by lightning; making a decrease
by death and accidents of one hundred and fifty-three persons. To this
decrease may be added, four male convicts, who found means to escape from
the colony on board of some of the ships which had been here.
The following were the prices of grain, live and dead stock, grocery,
spirits, etc. as they were sold or valued at Sydney and Parramatta at the
close of the year 1793:
AT SYDNEY
GRAIN
Wheat per bushel, for cash, 10s
Ditto, in payment for labour, 14s
Maize per bushel, for cash, 7s
Ditto, in payment for labour, 12s 6d
Caffre corn 5s
English flour per lb 6d
Flour of this country, for cash, 3d
Ditto, for labour, 4d
VEGETABLES
Potatoes per cwt 10s
Ditto per lb 1½d
LIVE AND DEAD STOCK
Ewes (Cape) from £6 to £8 8s
Wethers (Cape) from £4 to £5 10s
She goats, full grown, £8 8s
Ditto, half grown, £4 4s
Male goat, full grown, £2
Breeding sows from £3 to £6
Sucking pigs 6s
A full grown hog from £3 to £3 10s
Turkeys per couple, nearly full grown, £2 ss
Ducks per couple, nearly ditto, 10s
Laying hens, each 5s
A full grown cock 4s
Half grown fowls 2s
Chickens, six weeks old, per couple 2s
Fresh pork per lb 9d
Mutton per lb from 2s to 2s 6d
Kangaroo per lb 4d
Salt pork per lb 9d
Salt beef per lb 6d
GROCERIES
Tea (green) from 12s to 16s
Tea (black) from 10s to 12s
Loaf sugar per lb 2s 6d
Fine moist sugar per lb 2s
Coarse moist sugar per lb 1s 6d
Butter from 2s per lb to 2s 6d
Cheese from 2s per lb to 2s 6d
Soap per lb from 2s to 3s
Tobacco per lb from 1s to 1s 6d
Lamp oil, made from shark's liver, per gall 4s
WINE--SPIRITS--PORTER
Jamaica rum per gallon from £1 to £1 8s
Rum (American) from 16s per gall to £1
Coniac brandy per gallon from £1 to £1 4s
Cape brandy per gallon from 16s to £1
Cherry brandy per dozen £3 12s
Wine (Cape Madeira) per gallon 12s
Porter per gallon from 4s to 6s
AT PARRAMATTA
GRAIN
Wheat per bushel, for cash, 10s
Ditto, in payment for labour, 14s
Maize per bushel, for cash, 7s 6d
Ditto, in payment for labour, l0s
Caffre corn, none
English flour per lb 6d
Flour of this country, for cash, 4d
Ditto, for labour, 6d
VEGETABLES
Potatoes per lb 3d
Greens per hundred 6s
LIVE AND DEAD STOCK
Ewes from £4 to £10
Wethers from £2 10s to £4
She goats from £4 to £10 10s
A young male goat £3
Breeding sows from £3 to £7
Sucking pigs from 4s to 7s 6d
Turkeys per couple, nearly full grown, £2 2s
Ducks per couple, full grown, £1 1s
Laying Hens, each from 4s to 7s 6d
A full grown cock 5s
Half grown fowls 3s
Chickens, six weeks old, per couple 2s
Fresh pork per lb 9d
Mutton per lb from 2s to 2s 6d
Kangaroo per lb 4d
Salt pork per lb 9d
Salt beef per lb 5d
GROCERIES
Tea (green) from 16s to £1 1s
Black tea from 10s to 16s
Moist sugar (coarse) 2s
Butter per lb 2s 6d
Cheese per lb 2s 6d
Soap per lb 3s
Tobacco per lb 2s
Lamp oil, made from shark's liver, per gall 4s
WINE--SPIRITS--PORTER
Neat spirits per gallon from £1 10s to £2
Wine of the most inferior quality per gall 16s
The high prices of wine, spirits, and porter, proceeded not only from
their scarcity, but from the great avidity with which they were procured
by the generality of the people in these settlements, with whom money was
of so little value, that the purchaser had been often known (instead of
asking) to name himself a price for the article he wanted, fixing it at
as high again would otherwise have been required of him.
The live stock in the country belonging to individuals was confined to
three or four persons, who kept up the price in order to create an
interest in the preservation of it. An English cow, in calf by the bull
which was brought here in the _Gorgon_, was sold by one officer to
another for eighty pounds; and the calf, which proved a male, was sold
for fifteen pounds. A mare, brought in the _Britannia_ from the Cape, was
valued at forty pounds, and, although aged and defective, was sold twice
in the course of a few days for that sum. It must however be remarked,
that in these sales stock itself was generally the currency of the
country, one kind of animals being commonly exchanged for another.
Labour was also proportionably high. For sawing one hundred feet of
timber, in their own time, for individuals, a pair of sawyers demanded
seven shillings; a carpenter for his day's work charged three shillings;
and for splitting paling for fences, and bringing it in from the woods,
they charged from one shilling and six-pence to two shillings and
six-pence per hundred. An officer who had an allotment of one hundred
acres of land near the town of Sydney having occasion for a hundred
thousand bricks to build a dwelling-house, contracted with a brickmaker
and his gang, and for that number of bricks paid him the sum of forty-two
pounds ten shillings. In the fields, for cutting down the timber of an
acre of ground, burning it off, and afterwards hoeing it for corn, the
price was four pounds. Five-and-twenty shillings were demanded and paid
for hoeing an acre of ground already cleared.
For all this labour, where money was paid, it was taken at its reputed
value; but where articles were given in lieu of labour, they were charged
according to the prices stated.
The masters of merchantmen, who generally made it their business
immediately on their arrival to learn the prices of commodities in the
colony, finding them so extravagantly high as before related, thought it
not their concern to reduce them to anything like a fair equitable value;
but, by asking themselves what must be considered a high price, after
every proper allowance for risk, insurance, and loss, kept up the
extravagant nominal value which every thing bore in the colony.