Alarming State of the provisions
The _William_ arrives with supplies from England, and the _Arthur_ from Bengal
The amor patriae natural to man in all parts of the earth
Information
Mr. Bampton
Captain Bligh
_Admiral Barrington_ transport lost
Full ration issued
Ingratitude and just punishment of the settlers
Buffin's corn-mill set to work
Gaming
Honesty of a native
The _Daedalus_ arrives from America
Information
Female inconstancy, and its consequences
The _Arthur_ sails
The _Francis_ returns from Norfolk Island
A boat stolen
Natives killed
A new mill
Disorder in the eyes prevalent
March.] To save as much of the seed-wheat as possible, a deduction of two
pounds was made in the allowance of that article which was served to the
convicts on Saturday the first of the month. The provision-store was
never in so reduced a state as at this time; one serving of salt-meat
alone remained, and that was to be the food of only half a week. After
that period, the prospect, unless we were speedily relieved, was
miserable; mere bread and water appeared to be the portion of by far the
greater part of the inhabitants of these settlements, of that part too
whose bodily labour must be called forth to restore plenty, and attain
such a state of independence on the parent country as would render delay
or accident in the transport of supplies a matter of much less moment to
the colony than it had ever hitherto been considered.
As at this time the stock of swine in the possession of individuals was
rather considerable, some saving of the salt provisions, it was thought,
might be made, by purchasing a quantity sufficient to issue to the
military at the rate of four pounds and a half to each man for the week,
in lieu of the three pounds of salt meat. A quantity was therefore
purchased by the commissary and issued in the above proportion, the
soldiers receiving the fresh instead of the salt provisions (to which
latter they must have given the preference, being able to make them go
the farthest) with that cheerfulness which at all times marked their
conduct when compliance with any wish of their commanding-officer was the
question.
Both public and private stock appeared to be threatened with destruction.
The sheep and goats in the colony were not numbered far within
one thousand. The cows had increased that species of stock by
thirteen calves, which were produced in the last year. The exact number
of hogs was not, nor could it well be ascertained; it must, however, have
been considerable, as every industrious convict had been able to keep one
or more breeding sows. All this wore, indeed, the appearance of a
resource; yet what would it all have been (admitting that an equal
partition had been made) when distributed among upwards of three thousand
people? But an equal partition of private stock, as most of this was
such, could not have been expected. The officers holding this stock in
their own hands would certainly take care to keep it there, and from it
would naturally supply their own people. How far, in an hour of such
distress, the convicts would have sat quietly down on their return from
labouring in the field to their scanty portion of bread and water, and
looked patiently on while others were keeping want and hunger at a
distance by the daily enjoyment of a comfortable meal of fresh viands?
was a question with many who thought of their situation.
Happily, however, for all descriptions of people, they were not this time
to be put to the trial.
On Saturday the 8th, at the critical moment when the doors of the
provision-store had closed, and the convicts had received their last
allowance of the salt provisions which remained, the signal for a sail
was made at the South Head. We expected a ship from India in pursuance of
the contract entered into with Mr. Bampton, who had been absent from us
nearly eleven months. We also looked daily for the return of the
_Daedalus_. We hoped for a ship from England. But whence the ship came
for which the signal had been made was to remain for some time unknown.
One boat alone, with an officer, went down; (in compliance with an order
which had some days before been given to that purpose;) and on its return
at night we were told that a ship with English colours flying had stood
into the harbour as far as Middle-head; but meeting with a heavy squall
of wind at south, in which she split her fore-top-sail, was compelled
again to put to sea. It was conjectured that she was a stranger; for if
any person on board her had had any knowledge of the harbour, she might
have been run with much ease from the Middle-head into safety in
Spring-cove. The officer who went down (Captain Johnston) unfortunately
could not board her, such a sea ran within the Heads; and the wind blew
with so much violence as to render any attempt to get near her extremely
dangerous.
At night the wind increased with much rain, and morning was anxiously
looked for, to tell us where and who the stranger was. Nothing more
however was known of her during that day (Sunday), the same causes as
those of the preceding day operating against our receiving any other
information, than that she was to be seen from the flagstaff, whence in
the evening word was brought up over land, that another vessel, a brig,
was in sight.
Anxiety and curiosity, now strained to the utmost, were obliged to wait
the passing of another night; but about three o'clock on Monday the 10th,
the wind and weather having both changed, to our great satisfaction we
saw the ship _William_, Mr. William Folger of London master, anchor
safely in the cove. With her also came up the _Arthur_, a small brig of
about ninety-five tons, from Bengal.
The _William_, we found, had sailed from the river Thames on the first of
July last, whence she proceeded to Cork, where she took on board a cargo
of beef and pork for this colony*; but had not an ounce of flour. She
left Ireland on the 20th of September, having waited some weeks for a
convoy, (the war with France in which England was engaged having rendered
the protection of some of his Majesty's ships necessary,) and made her
passage to this country by the route of Rio de Janeiro. She arrived at
that port on the 22nd day of November; left it the third of the following
month; and made Van Dieman's Land on the second of this month. Mr. Folger
reported, that his weather from the American coast to this port had been
in general good.
[* She had likewise on board a machine for dressing flour; a small
quantity of iron; two pairs of millstones and some tools for the smiths;
all which were received in the river.]
We learned that Governor Phillip reached England in the _Atlantic_ on the
21st of May last. That ship (which it may be remembered sailed from this
place on the 11th of December 1792) passed Cape Horn on the 17th of the
following January; anchored at Rio de Janeiro on the 7th of February; and
sailed thence on the 4th of March; arriving in the channel without any
interruption, save what was given by a French privateer which chased her
when within forty-eight hours sail of the land. The natives Bennillong
and Yem-mer-ra-wan-nie were well, but not sufficiently divested of the
genuine, natural love for liberty and their native country, to prefer
London with its pleasures and its abundance to the woods of New South
Wales. They requested that their wives might be taught to expect their
return in the course of this year. Had it been possible to eradicate in
any breast that love for the place of our birth, or where we have lived
and grown from infancy to manhood, which is implanted in us by the kind
hand of Nature, it surely would have been effected on two natives of New
Holland, whose country did not possess a single charm in the eye even of
a savage inhabitant of New Zealand.* But we now found that in every
breast that sentiment is the same; and that a love for our native country
is not the result of her being the seat of arts and arms; the residence
of worth, beauty, truth, justice; of all the virtues that adorn and
dignify human nature; and of all the pleasures and enjoyments that render
life valuable; but that it can be excited even in a land where
wretchedness, want, and ignorance have laid their iron hands on the
inhabitants, and marked with misery all their days and nights.
[* The New Zealanders who were brought hither in the _Daedalus_ in April
last expressed both here and at Norfolk Island the utmost abhorrence of
this country and its inhabitants.]
In the _William_ arrived an assistant-chaplain, the Rev. Mr. Marsden, to
divide the religious duties of the colony with Mr. Johnson.
Had it been known on the evening of the 8th, when the report was received
that the ship had been blown out to sea, that she contained so valuable a
cargo as four months beef and pork (eleven hundred and seventy-three
barrels of the former, and nine hundred and seven of the latter) at the
full ration, how would our anxiety have been increased upon her account,
particularly as it still lived in our remembrance, that the _Justinian_
with a similar cargo, after making the North of this harbour, was blown
off to the Northward, was three weeks before she regained the port, and
was once within that time nearly lost in a heavy gale of wind! Had the
_William_ been blown off the coast for three weeks, how deeply would
distress have been felt in these settlements!
The brig from Bengal had on board a small quantity of beef and pork; some
sugar, Bengal rum, and coarse callicoes.
To the great surprise and regret of every one, it was heard from Mr. Barber
the master, that at the time of his departure from Calcutta, no accounts
had been received of the arrival of Mr. Bampton in any port in India.
As well at his departure from Norfolk Island, as when he quitted this
place, he had expressed his resolution of attempting a passage between
this country and New Guinea, in the hope of being, if successful, the
first to establish a fact that would be attended with singular advantages
to his Majesty's settlements in this part of the world.
Captain Bligh, of the happy conclusion of whose second voyage for the
bread fruit we now heard by the _William_, was particularly instructed to
survey the straits which separate New Holland from New Guinea. By the
accounts of this voyage which reached us, we found that the two ships
_Providence_ and _Assistance_ were twenty days from their entrance into
the strait to their finding themselves again in an open sea. The
navigation through this passage was described as the most dangerous ever
performed by any navigator, abounding in every direction with islands,
breakers, and shoals, through which they pursued their course with the
utmost difficulty. In one day, on anchoring to avoid danger, the
_Providence_ broke two of her anchors; and as the eastern monsoon
was blowing, (the month of September 1792,) and the passage which
they were exploring was extremely narrow, it became impossible to
beat back. From some of the islands, eight canoes formed the daring
attempt of attacking the armed tender, and with their arrows killed
one and wounded two of the seamen. Some of these canoes were sixty
or seventy feet long, and in one of them twenty-two persons were counted.
This account excited many apprehensions for Mr. Bampton's safety. On
taking his leave of Lieutenant-governor King, he assured him that he
hoped to see Norfolk Island again in November, expecting to be here early
in the month of October. It was known that he had on board some articles
of merchandise which he meant to dispose of at Batavia; but by accounts
received at Calcutta from that place a very short time before the
_Arthur_ sailed, he had not touched at that port. It was therefore more
than probable, that both the _Shah Hormuzear_ and _Chesterfield_ had been
wrecked on some of the shoals with which the strait abounded, and that
their officers and people, taking to their long-boats, had fallen
sacrifices to the natives who had attacked the _Assistance_, by whose
guns many had been wounded in their attempt to carry that vessel.
To the disappointment which the colony sustained from the failure of the
contract already mentioned for cattle and provisions which were to have
been brought hither by Mr. Bampton, was added the regret which every
thinking being among us felt on contemplating the calamitous moments that
had, in all probability, brought destruction on so many of our
fellow-creatures.
Mr. Barber also informed us, that Captain Patrickson, who was here in the
_Philadelphia_ brig in October 1792, had purchased or hired a large ship,
on board of which he had actually put a quantity of provisions and other
articles, with which he designed to return to this country; but under
some apprehension that his cargo might possibly not be purchased, he gave
up the intention, and when the _Arthur_ sailed was left proceeding to
Europe under Imperial colours.
The Government of Bengal too had advertised for terms to freight a vessel
for this country with cattle and provisions; but were diverted from the
design by the equipment of the armaments which it was necessary to enter
into at that time.
Thus had the infant colony of New South Wales still been doomed to be the
sport of contingency, the jarring interests of men co-operating with the
dangers of the sea to throw obstacles in the way of that long-desired
independence which would free the mother country from a heavy expense,
and would deliver the colonists from the constant apprehension under
which they laboured, of being one day left to seek their subsistence
among the woods of the country, or along the shores of its coast*.
[* It had been proposed, on the account reaching Bengal of the loss of
his Majesty's ship _Guardian_, to raise by subscription a sum sufficient to
purchase and freight a ship with provisions to this country; but, from
some accident or other, this benevolent purpose was never put in
execution.]
The report of the probable loss of the _Admiral Barrington_ transport
which was received here in February 1793, was now confirmed. It appeared,
that after sailing from Batavia she reached so near her port as to be in
sight of the shipping at Bombay, but was driven off the coast by a gale
of wind, in which she was forced on shore on one of the Malouine Islands,
where she was wrecked, and her crew (the master, chief mate, and surgeon
excepted) were murdered by the natives. These people saved themselves by
swimming to an East-India country ship which was riding at anchor near
the island.
The sight of two vessels at anchor in the cove laden with provisions gave
at this time greater satisfaction than had been known on any other
arrival; for never before had the colony verged so near to the point of
being without a pound of salt provisions. On Monday the 10th (the
issuing-day to the civil and military), when all were served their
provisions, there remained only eighteen hundred and three pounds of salt
meat in store; and even this quantity had been saved by issuing fresh
pork to the non-commissioned officers and men of the regiment on the two
last serving-days*.
[* Saved on the 3rd and 10th of March by issuing fresh pork to the
non-commissioned officers and privates of the New South Wales corps,
their wives and children, 1803 lbs
There were issued to the above people, fresh pork, 5099 lbs
The hogs that were purchased on this occasion from individuals cost
government the sum of £254 19s 6d]
In consequence of these fortunate arrivals, the full ration of salt meat
was ordered to be issued; and as soon as part of the cargo was got on
shore from the storeship, the deficiency on the last serving days was
completed to the full allowance. The last of the wheat was served on the
17th (a proper quantity being reserved for seed) and on the next
provision-day ten pounds of Indian corn were substituted instead of the
allowance of wheat. Nothing but dire necessity could have induced the
gathering and issuing this article in its present unripened state, the
whole of it being soft, full of juice, and wholly unfit to grind. Had the
settlers, with only a common share of honesty, returned the wheat which
they had received from Government to sow their grounds the last season,
the reproach which they drew upon themselves, by not stepping forward at
this moment to assist Government, would not have been incurred; but
though, to an individual, they all knew the anxiety which every one felt
for the preservation of the seed-wheat, yet when applied to, and told (in
addition to the sum of ten shillings per bushel) that any quantity which
they might choose to put into the store should be brought from their
farms without any expence of carriage to them, they all, or nearly all,
pleaded an insufficiency to crop their ground for the ensuing season; a
plea that was well known to be made without a shadow of truth. In
consequence of this refusal, for their excuses amounted to as much, the
lieutenant-governor directed all those settlers*, whose limited time** for
being victualled from the public stores had expired, to be struck off the
provision list, and left to provide for themselves, a very just
punishment for their ingratitude; for some had been fed and supplied from
the colonial stores for more than twelve months beyond the time
prescribed for them when they were settled. This indulgence had been
continued to them from quarter to quarter on account of bad crops,
unfavourable seasons, and the reduced ration, with which all of them,
more or less, had had to struggle; and every accommodation had constantly
been afforded them which was consistent with the situation of the colony.
It was, however, now seen, that they were not the description of settlers
from whom, whatever indulgences they might receive, Government had any
assistance to expect; their principal object was their own immediate
interest; and to serve that, they would forget every claim which the
public had upon them.
[* Sixty-three in number]
[** Eighteen months]
The small cargo of salt provisions brought by the brig from Bengal was
purchased on account of Government for £307 16s; the beef at five-pence
and the pork at eight-pence per pound; the remainder of her cargo was
purchased by the officers of the civil and military departments. The
cargo of the _William_, which arrived in very good order, was all landed,
and the ship cleared and discharged from Government employ on the 28th.
The Rev. Mr. Marsden entered on the duties of his function the first
Sunday after his arrival, preaching to the military in a barrack prepared
for the occasion in the forenoon, and to the convicts at the church
erected by Mr. Johnson in the afternoon.
On the day when the _William_ anchored in the cove Buffin's new mill was
completed and set to work; and Wilkinson' s was in some forwardness. At
first it went rather heavily; but in a few days, with nine men's labour,
it ground sixty-three pounds of wheat in seventeen minutes. It must be
observed, that not any mill was yet erected in the colony whereat corn
was ground for the public, the military as well as the convicts grinding
their own grain themselves. Whenever wind or water-mills should be
erected, this labour would be saved, and the allowance of wheat or Indian
corn be issued ground and dressed.
The late distress of the colony was not found to have made any amendment
in the morals of the convicts. Gaming still prevailed among them in its
fullest extent; and a theft which was committed at one of these meetings
showed how far it was carried. Among those who made a daily practice of
gaming was one who, in his situation as an overseer, had given such
offence to some of his fellow-prisoners, that a plan was formed to
plunder him the first time that he should have a sum worthy of their
attention. He was accordingly surrounded when engaged at play, by a party
who, watching their opportunity, rushed upon him when he had won a stake
of five-and-twenty dollars, and, in the confusion that ensued, secured
the whole. He was, however, fortunate enough to seize one of them, with
ten of the dollars in his hand, but was not able to recover any more. The
man whom he secured proved to be Samuel Wright, who in the month of July
last had been reprieved at the foot of the gallows; so soon had he
forgotten the terror of that moment. On this circumstance being reported
to the lieutenant-governor, Wright received an immediate corporal
punishment.
McKoy, the overseer, confessed that gaming had been for many years his
profession and subsistence, though born of honest and reputable parents;
and he acknowledged, that but for his pursuit of that vice he should
never have visited this country in the situation of a convict.
A better principle showed itself shortly after in Ca-ru-ey, a native
youth, who, from long residence among us, had contracted some of our
distinctions between good and ill. Being fishing one morning in his canoe
near the lieutenant-governor's farm, he perceived some convicts gathering
and secreting the Indian corn which grew there; and, knowing that acts of
that nature were always punished, he instantly came to the settlement,
and gave an account of what he had seen, in time to secure the offenders
on the spot, with the corn in their possession.
As he made no secret of what he had done, it was apprehended that some
revenge might, if they were punished, be levelled at him on a future
opportunity, they were therefore pardoned; but Ca-ru-ey was nevertheless
applauded and recompensed for his attention and honesty.
Among other articles of information received by the _William_, we were
assured, that it had been industriously circulated in England, that there
was not in this country either grass for graminivorous animals, or
vegetables for the use of man. This report was, however, rather forcibly
contradicted by the abundant increase of all descriptions of live stock
at this time in the colony, and by the plenty which was to be found in
every garden, whether cultivated by the officer or by the convict. A
striking instance of this plenty occurred at Parramatta a few days before
the arrival of the storeship, when six tons and two hundred weight of
potatoes were gathered as the produce of only three quarters of an acre
of ground. From the then reduced state of the stores, they were sold for
fifty pounds.
Mutton was sold in this month for one shilling and nine-pence per pound.
April.] in the forenoon of Thursday the 3rd of April, the signal was made
at the South Head for a sail, and about four o'clock the _Daedalus_
storeship anchored in the cove from the north-west coast of America; but
last from Owhyhee, one of the Sandwich Islands, from which place she
sailed on the 8th day of February last.
Lieutenant Hanson, on his arrival at Nootka Sound the 8th of last
October, found only a letter from Captain Vancouver, directing him to
follow the _Discovery_ to another port; between which and Nootka he
fortunately met with her and the _Chatham_, and was afterwards obliged to
proceed with them to the Sandwich Islands, before Captain Vancouver could
take out of the _Daedalus_ the stores which were consigned to his charge.
The harbour of Nootka was still in the hands of the Spaniards, and some
jealousy on their part prevented the delivery of the stores from the
vessel in any of the Spanish ports on the coast.
Mr. Hanson was informed, that three natives of Whahoo (the island whereat
his predecessor in the _Daedalus_, Lieutenant Hergest, with the
astronomer, Mr. Gootch, and the seaman were killed) had been delivered up
by the chief of the island to Captain Vancouver, for the purpose of being
offered as an expiatory sacrifice for those murders; and that they were
accordingly, after remaining some short time on board the _Discovery_,
taken one by one into a canoe, and put to death alongside that ship by
one of their chiefs. A pistol was the instrument made use of on this
occasion, which certainly was as extraordinary as unexpected.
The great accommodation which those islands proved to ships trading on
the north-west coast of America rendered it absolutely necessary, that
the inhabitants should be made to understand that we never would nor
could pass unnoticed an act of such atrocity. With this view Captain
Vancouver had demanded of the chief of Whahoo the murderers of Mr. Hergest
and his unfortunate companions. It was not supposed that the people
sacrificed were the actual perpetrators of these murders; but that
an equal number of the natives had been given up as an atonement for the
Europeans we had lost.
The native of this country who accompanied Lieutenant Hanson we had the
satisfaction of seeing return safe in the _Daedalus_. He had conducted
himself with the greatest propriety during the voyage, readily complying
with whatever was required of him, and not incurring, in any one
instance, the dislike or ill-will of any person on board the ship.
Wherever he went he readily adopted the manners of those about him; and
when at Owhyhee, having discovered that favours from the females were to
be procured at the easy exchange of a looking-glass, a nail, or a knife,
he was not backward in presenting his little offering, and was as well
received as any of the white people in the ship. It was noticed too that
he always displayed some taste in selecting the object of his attentions.
The king of Owhyhee earnestly wished to detain him on the island, making
splendid offers to Mr. Hanson, of canoes, warlike instruments, and other
curiosities, to purchase him; but if Mr. Hanson had been willing to have
left him, Collins would not have consented, being very anxious to return
to New South Wales.
He did not appear to have acquired much of our language during his
excursion; but seemed to comprehend a great deal more than he could find
words to express.
On his arrival at Sydney he found his wife, whom he had left in a state
of pregnancy, in the possession of another native, a very fine young
fellow, who since his coming among us had gone by the name of Wyatt. The
circumstance of his return, and the novelty of his appearance, being
habited like one of us, and very clean, drew many of his countrymen about
him; and among others his rival, and his wife. Wyatt and Collins eyed
each other with indignant sullenness, while the poor wife (who had
recently been delivered of a female child, which shortly after died)
appeared terrified, and as if not knowing which to cling to as her
protector, but expecting that she should be the sufferer, whether
ascertained to belong to her former or her present husband. A few days,
however, determined the point: her travelled husband shivered a spear
with Wyatt, who was wounded in the contest, and the wife became the prize
of the victor, who, after thus ascertaining his right by arms, seemed
indifferent about the reward, and was soon after seen traversing the
country in search of another wife.
Three young gentlemen of the _Discovery_ and _Chatham's_ quarterdecks
arrived here in the _Daedalus_, to procure passages from hence to
England. Among them was the Honourable Thomas Pitt, who on his arrival
here first learnt the death of his father, the late Lord Camelford.
Captain Vancouver not having room for all the provisions which were sent
him from the public stores of this settlement, the greatest part of them
were returned.
While the _Daedalus_ was in the morning standing in for the harbour, the
_Arthur_ went out, bound to that part of the world from which she was
just arrived, the north-west coast of America. Four convicts whose terms
of transportation had expired were permitted to quit the colony in her.
She also took away the carpenter of the _Fairy_, American brig, who had
been left on shore dangerously ill when Mr. Rogers sailed, but who had
perfectly recovered through the great attention and medical assistance
which he received at the hospital.
The day following the arrival of the _Daedalus_, the _Francis_ schooner
returned from Norfolk Island, having been absent five weeks and one day.
In her arrived the Rev. Mr. Bayne, the chaplain of the New South Wales
corps, and Mr. Grimes, the deputy-surveyor of lands, with some few other
passengers.
Lieutenant-governor King's second crop of Indian corn had been so
productive, that he was enabled to make an offer of sending five thousand
bushels of that article to this colony, if required.
The peace and good order which universally prevailed at Norfolk Island
having rendered unnecessary the keeping together the settlers as a
militia, they had some time before the arrival of the _Francis_ returned
to their several avocations on their respective farms.
Notwithstanding the ill success which had hitherto attended the
endeavours of the Irish convicts stationed at Toongabbie and Parramatta
to find a way from this country to China, a few of them were again hardy
enough to attempt effecting their escape, and getting thither in a small
boat, which they took from a settler, and with which they got out of the
harbour in the night of the 12th of this month. They had furnished
themselves with some provisions; but the wretchedness of their boat must
have ensured to them the same end which certainly befel Tarwood and his
companions, particularly as it blew a gale of wind the day succeeding
their departure. It was at first imagined that they would be heard of at
the Hawkesbury; but there could be little doubt of their having perished.
From the settlement on the banks of that river the best reports continued
to be received from time to time: every where the settlers found a rich
black mould of several feet depth, and one man had in three months
planted and dug a crop of potatoes. The natives, however, had given them
such interruption, as induced a necessity for firing upon them, by which,
it was said, one man was killed.
At Toongabbie, where the Indian corn was growing, their visits and their
depredations were so frequent and extensive, that the watchmen stationed
for the protection of the corn-grounds were obliged to fire on them, and
one party, considerable in number, after having been driven off,
returning directly to the plunder, was pursued by the watchmen for
several miles, when a contest ensued, in which the natives were worsted,
and three were left dead on the spot. The watchmen had so often come in
with accounts of this nature, that, apprehensive lest the present
transaction should not be credited, they brought in with them, as a
testimonial not to be doubted, the head of one of those whom they had
slain. With this witness to support them, they told many wonderful
circumstances of the pursuit and subsequent fight, which they stated to
have taken place at least fourteen miles from the settlement, and to have
been very desperately and obstinately sustained on the part of the
natives. It was remarked, however, that not one of the watchmen had
received the slightest injury, a circumstance that threw a shade over
their story, which, but for the production of the head, would have been
altogether disbelieved.
Whatever might have been the truth, it is certain that a party of natives
appeared the following day about the corn grounds, but conducted
themselves with a great deal of caution, stationing one of their party
upon the stump of a tree which commanded an extensive view of the
cultivated grounds, and retreating the instant they perceived themselves
to be observed.
From the quantities of husks and leaves of corn which were found
scattered about the dwelling places of these people, their depredations
this season must have been very extensive.
At Sydney a large party of natives assembled for the purpose of burning
the body of Carradah, the native mentioned in the transactions of the
month of December last, by the name of Midjer Bool. He had been put to
death while asleep in the night by some people who were inimical to his
tribe; and the natives who witnessed the performance of the last rite
assured us, that when the murderers should be discovered several severe
contests would ensue. It was at this time that the rencounter between
Collins and Wyatt took place; and some other points of honour which
remained unsettled were then determined, not without much violence and
bloodshed, though no one was killed.
Cropping the ground with wheat formed the general and most material
labour of this month. On the public account nearly four hundred acres were
so sown with that essential grain. At this time wheat bore the price of
twenty shillings a bushel.
The crops of Indian corn in general turned out very productive. An
officer who held an allotment of an hundred acres near Parramatta, from
each acre of nineteen, on a light sandy soil, gathered fifty bushels of
shelled corn; and a patch of Caffre corn, growing in the like soil,
produced the same quantity per acre. This grain had been introduced into
our settlement from the Cape of Good Hope by Captain Paterson, and was
found to answer well for fattening of stock. No one having attempted to
separate the farinaceous part of the grain from the husk, which was of an
astringent quality, no judgment had been formed of its utility as a
flour; but some who had ground it and mixed the whole together into a
paste pronounced it to be equal to any preparation of oatmeal
Wilkinson's grinding machine was set in motion this month. It was a
walking mill, upon a larger construction than that at Parramatta. The
diameter of the wheel in which the men walked was twenty-two feet, and it
required six people to work it. Those who had been in both mills (this
and Buffin's, which was worked by capstan-bars and nine men) gave the
preference to the latter; and in a few days it was found to merit it;
for, from the variety and number of the wheels in Wilkinson's machinery,
something was constantly wrong about it. Finding, after a fair trial,
that it was imperfect, it was taken to pieces; and Buffin was employed to
replace it by another mill upon the same principle as that which he had
himself constructed; and Wilkinson returned to Parramatta.
An inflammation of the eyes appeared to be a disorder generally prevalent
among all descriptions of people at this time. It raged at first among
children; but when got into a house, hardly any person in it escaped the
complaint. It was accounted for by the variable and unsettled weather
which we had during this month.