Gangs sent to till the public grounds
The _Francis_ sails
Regulations for the Hawkesbury
Natives
Works
Weather
Deaths
Produce at the river
Transactions there
Natives
The _Francis_ arrives from the Cape
The _Fancy_ from New Zealand
Information
The _Experiment_ sails for India
A native killed
Weather
Wheat
Criminal Court
Ration reduced
The _Britannia_ hired to procure provisions
Natives at the Hawkesbury
The _Endeavour_ arrives with cattle from Bombay
Deaths
Returns of ground sown with wheat
The _Britannia_ sails for India
The _Fancy_ for Norfolk Island
Convicts
Casualties
1795.]
January.] From the great numbers of labouring convicts who were
employed in the town of Sydney, and at the grounds about Petersham; of
others employed with officers and settlers; of those who, their terms of
transportation having expired, were allowed to provide for themselves;
and of others who had been permitted to leave the colony, public
field-labour was entirely at a stand. The present commanding officer
wishing to cultivate the grounds belonging to government, collecting as
many labourers as could be got together, sent a large gang, formed of
bricklayers, brickmakers, timber-carriage men, etc. etc. to Parramatta
and Toongabbie, there to prepare the ground for wheat for the ensuing
season. At the muster which had been lately taken fifty people were found
without any employment, whose services still belonged to the public;
most of these were laid hold of, and sent to hard labour; and it appeared
at the same time that some few were at large in the woods, runaways, and
vagabonds. These people began labouring in the grounds immediately after
New Year's day, which as usual was observed as a holiday.
On the 22nd, the convict women who had children attended at the store,
when they received for each child three yards of flannel, one shirt, and
two pounds of soap.
On the day following, the colonial schooner sailed for the river, having
on board a mill, provisions, etc. for the settlers there. A military
guard was also ordered, the commanding officer of which was to introduce
some regulations among the settlers, and to prevent, by the effect of his
presence and authority, the commission of those enormities which
disgraced that settlement. For the reception of such quantity of the
Indian corn and wheat grown there this season as might be purchased by
government, a store-house was to be erected under the inspection of the
commissary; and Baker, the superintendant who arrived in the _Surprise_,
was sent out to take the charge of it when finished. The master of the
schooner was ordered, after discharging his cargo, to receive on board
Mr. Charles Grimes, the deputy surveyor-general, and proceed with him to
Port Stephens, for the purpose of examining that harbour.
About the middle of the month a convict, on entering the door of his hut,
was bit in the foot by a black snake; the effect was, an immediate
swelling of the foot, leg, and thigh, and a large tumour in the groin.
Mr. Thompson, the assistant-surgeon, was fortunately able to reduce all
these swellings by frequently bathing the parts in oil, and saved the
man's life without having recourse to amputation. While we lived in a
wood, and might naturally have expected to have been troubled with them,
snakes and other reptiles were by no means so often seen, as since, by
clearing and opening the country about us, the natives had not had
opportunities of setting the woods so frequently on fire. But now they
were often met in the different paths about the settlements, basking at
mid-day in the sunshine, and particularly after a shower of rain.
We heard and saw much of the natives about this time. At the Hawkesbury a
man had been wounded by some of the Wood tribe. Two women (natives) were
murdered not far from the town of Sydney during the night, and another
victim, a female of Pe-mul-wy's party (the man who killed McIntyre),
having been secured by the males of a tribe inimical to Pe-mul-wy,
dragged her into the woods, where they fatigued themselves with
exercising acts of cruelty and lust upon her.
The principal labour performed in January was preparing the ground for
wheat. The Indian corn looked every where remarkably well; it was now
ripening, and the settlers on the banks of the Hawkesbury supposed that
at least thirty thousand bushels of that grain would be raised among them.
Several native boys, from eight to fourteen years of age, were at this
time living among the settlers in the different districts. They were
found capable of being made extremely useful; they went cheerfully into
the fields to labour, and the elder ones with ease hoed in a few hours a
greater quantity of ground than that generally assigned to a convict for
a day's work. Some of these were allowed a ration of provisions from the
public stores.
In consequence of the heavy rains, the river at the Hawkesbury rose many
feet higher than it had been known to rise in other rains, by which
several settlers were sufferers. At Toongabbie the wheat belonging to
government was considerably injured. At Parramatta the damage was
extensive; the bridge over the creek, which had been very well
constructed, was entirely swept away; and the boats with their moorings
carried down the river. At Sydney some chimneys in the new barracks
fell in.
Mr. Jones, the quarter-master sergeant of the New South Wales corps, a
person of much respectability, and whose general demeanor indicated an
education far beyond what is met with in the sphere of life in which he
moved, died this month.
A convict lad, in the service of Mr. William Smith the store-keeper, died
on the 26th, having swallowed arsenic. It was remarkable in his untimely
end, that he himself placed the poison with a view of destroying the rats
with which the house was infested, and was particularly cautioned against
it. How he came, after that, to take it himself, was not to be accounted
for.
February.] Early in February, the storehouse at the Hawkesbury being
completed, the provisions which had been sent round in the schooner were
landed and put under the care of Baker. Some officers who had made an
excursion to that settlement, with a view of selecting eligible spots for
farms, on their return spoke highly of the corn which they saw growing
there, and of the picturesque appearance of many of the settlers' farms.
The settlers told them, that in general their grounds which had been in
wheat had produced from thirty to thirty-six bushels an acre; that they
found one bushel (or on some spots five pecks) of seed sufficient to sow
an acre; and that, if sown as early as the month of April or May, they
imagined the ground would produce a second crop, and the season be not
too far advanced to ripen it. Their kitchen gardens were plentifully
stocked with vegetables. The master of the schooner complained that the
navigation of the river was likely to be hurt. The settlers having fallen
many trees into the water, he was apprehensive they would drift ashore on
some of the points of the river where, in process of time, sand, etc.
might lodge against them, and form dangerous obstructions in the way of
craft which might be hereafter used on the river. No doubt remained of
the ill and impolitic conduct of some of the settlers toward the natives.
In revenge for some cruelties which they had experienced, they threatened
to put to death three of the settlers, Michael Doyle, Robert Forrester,
and ---- Nixon; and had actually attacked and cruelly wounded two other
settlers, George Shadrach and John Akers, whose farms and persons they
mistook for those of Doyle and Forrester. These particulars were procured
through the means of one Wilson, a wild idle young man, who, his term of
transportation being expired, preferred living among the natives in the
vicinity of the river, to earning the wages of honest industry by working
for settlers. He had formed an intermediate language between his own and
theirs, with which he made shift to comprehend something of what they
wished him to communicate; for they did not conceal the sense they
entertained of the injuries which had been done them. The tribe with whom
Wilson associated had given him a name, Bun-bo-e, but none of them had
taken his in exchange. As the gratifying an idle wandering disposition
was the sole object with Wilson in herding with these people, no good
consequence was likely to ensue from it; and it was by no means
improbable, that at some future time, if disgusted with the white people,
he would join the blacks, and assist them in committing depredations, or
make use of their assistance to punish or revenge his own injuries.
Mr. Grimes purposed taking him with him in the schooner to Port Stephens.
There were at this time several convicts in the woods subsisting by
theft; and it being said that three had been met with arms, it became
necessary to secure them as soon as possible. Watchmen and other people
immediately went out, and in the afternoon of the 14th a wretched fellow
of the name of Suffini was killed by one of them. This circumstance drove
the rest to a greater distance from Sydney, and they were reported, some
days afterwards, to have been met on their route to the river. Suffini
would not have been shot at, had he not refused to surrender when called
to by the watchman while in the act of plundering a garden.
About the latter end of the month the natives adjusted some affairs of
honour in a convenient spot near the brick-fields. The people who live
about the south shore of Botany Bay brought with them a stranger of an
extraordinary appearance and character; even his name had something
extraordinary in the sound--Gome-boak. He had been several days on his
journey from the place where he lived, which was far to the southward. In
height he was not more than five feet two or three inches; but he was by
far the most muscular, square, and well-formed native we had ever seen.
He fought well; his spears were remarkably long, and he defended himself
with a shield that covered his whole body. We had the satisfaction of
seeing him engaged with some of our Sydney friends, and of observing that
neither their persons nor reputations suffered any thing in the contest.
When the fight was over, on our praising to them the martial talents of
this stranger, the strength and muscle of his arm, and the excellence of
his sight, they admitted the praise to be just (because when opposed to
them he had not gained the slightest advantage); but, unwilling that we
should think too highly of him, they assured us, with horror in their
countenances, that Gome-boak was a cannibal.*
[* Gome-boak, we learned, was afterwards killed among his own people in
some affair to the southward.]
March.] On the 1st of March the _Francis_ returned from Port Stephens.
Mr. Grimes reported, that he went into two fresh-water branches, up which
he rowed, until, at no very great distance from the entrance, he found
them terminate in a swamp. He described the land on each side to be low
and sandy, and had seen nothing while in this harbour which in his
opinion could render a second visit necessary. The natives were so very
unfriendly, that he made but few observations on them. He thought they
were a taller and a stouter race of people than those about this
settlement, and their language was entirely different. Their huts and
canoes were something larger than those which we had seen here; their
weapons were the same. They welcomed him on shore with a dance, joined
hand in hand, round a tree, to express perhaps their unanimity; but one
of them afterwards, drawing Mr. Grimes into the wood, poised a spear, and
was on the point of throwing it, when he was prevented by young Wilson,
who, having followed Mr. Grimes with a double-barrelled gun, levelled at
the native, and fired it. He was supposed to be wounded, for he fell; but
rising again, he attempted a second time to throw the spear, and was
again prevented by Wilson. The effect of this second shot was supposed to
be conclusive, as he was not seen to rise any more. Mr. Grimes got back
to his boat without any other interruption.
Mr. House in his way thither ran close along the shore, and saw not any
shelter for a ship or vessel from Broken Bay to Port Stephens. The
schooner was only fourteen hours on her return.
About this time, the spirit of inquiry being on foot, Mr. Cummings, an
officer of the corps, made an excursion to the southward of Botany Bay,
and brought back with him some of the head bones of a marine animal,
which, on inspection, Captain Paterson, the only naturalist in the
country, pronounced to have belonged to the animal described by M. de
Buffon, and named by him the Manatee. On this excursion Mr. Cummings
received some information which led him to believe that the cattle that
had been lost soon after our arrival were in existence. The natives who
conversed with him were so particular in their account of having seen a
large animal with horns, that he shortly after, taking some of them with
him as guides, set off to seek them, but returned without success, not
having met with any trace that could lead him to suppose they might ever
be found.
On the 4th the _Britannia_ returned from the Cape of Good Hope, having
been absent six months and three days. Mr. Raven brought alive to his
employers, one stallion, twenty-nine mares, three fillies, and twelve
sheep. He sailed from the Cape with forty mares on board; but those that
died were the worst, and had not been kept up long enough on dry food
before they were embarked.
It was evident, on visiting the ship, that every attention had been paid
to their accommodation; but horses were generally supposed better
calculated than other cattle to endure the weather usually met with
between the Cape and this country*.
[* It may be remembered, that in a former voyage to the Cape on a similar
errand, she lost twenty-nine cows.]
We had the gratification of hearing that our fleet under Earl Howe had
been victorious in a gallant and severe action with the enemy.
On the 15th, when anxiously expecting an arrival from England, we saw
Mr. Dell come to anchor in the cove from Norfolk Island.
Though this arrival proved a disappointment to most of us, yet the
information we received by it was rather interesting. We now learned,
that Mr. Dell had been at New Zealand, where he passed three months in
the river named by Captain Cook the Thames, employed in cutting spars,
for the purpose (as was conjectured here at the time of his departure) of
freighting such ship as might arrive from India on Mr. Bampton's account.
In the course of that time they cut down upwards of two hundred very fine
trees, from sixty to one hundred and forty feet in length, fit for any
use that the East India Company's ships might require. The longest of
these trees measured three feet and a half in the butt, and differed from
the Norfolk Island pines in having the turpentine in the centre of the
tree instead of between the bark and the wood. From the natives they
received very little interruption, being only upon one occasion obliged
to fire on them. Like other uncivilised people, these islanders saw no
crime in theft, and stole some axes from the people employed on shore,
gratifying thereby their predilection for iron, which, strange as it may
sound to us, they would have preferred to gold. Unfortunately, iron was
too precious even here to part with, unless for an equivalent; and it
became necessary to convince them of it. Two men and one woman were
killed, the seamen who fired on them declaring (in their usual enlarged
style of relation) that they had driven off and pursued upwards of three
thousand of these cannibals. They readily parted with any quantity of
their flax, bartering it for iron. As the valuable qualities of this flax
were well known, it was not uninteresting to us to learn, that so small a
vessel as the _Fancy_ had lain at an anchor for three months in the midst
of numerous and warlike tribes of savages, without any attempt on their
part to become the masters; and that an intercourse might safely and
advantageously be opened between them and the colonists of New South
Wales, whenever proper materials and persons should be sent out to
manufacture the flax, if the governor of that country should ever think
it an object worthy of his attention.
From New Zealand the _Fancy_ proceeded to Norfolk Island, and now came
hither in the hope of meeting with, or hearing of Mr. Bampton.
From that settlement we gained the following information:
The _Salamander_ touched there, and the _Resolution_ appeared off the
island, but had no communication with the shore.
A heavy gale of wind, accompanied with a slight shock of the earth, had
done considerable damage, washing away a very useful wharf and crane at
Cascade, but which the governor meant immediately to replace.
The produce of the wheat this season on government's account amounted to
three thousand bushels, and that of settlers to fifteen hundred. The
Indian corn promised a very plentiful crop; but the settlers were much
discouraged by their bills of the last year remaining still unpaid. Much
of that corn was obliged to be surveyed, and two thousand bushels had
been condemned.
Swine were increasing so rapidly on Phillip Island, now stocked by
government, that Mr. King thought he should be able for some time to
issue fresh pork during four days in the week. The flour was expended; of
salt meat there was a sufficiency in store for eight months. The whole
number of persons on the island amounted to nine hundred and forty-five.
A convict well known in this settlement, Benjamin Ingraham, being
detected in the act of housebreaking, put an end to his own existence by
hanging himself, thus terminating by his own hand a life of wretchedness
and villany.
On the 17th St. Patrick found many votaries in the settlement. Some Cape
brandy lately imported in the _Britannia_ appeared to have arrived very
seasonably; and libations to the saint were so plentifully poured, that
at night the cells were full of prisoners.
Settlers, and other persons who had Indian corn to dispose of, were this
month informed, that they would receive five shillings per bushel for all
they might bring to the public stores. They were likewise told, that a
preference would be given to those who had disposed of their wheat to
government.
On the 23rd the _Experiment_ sailed for India. Mr. McClellan had been
with his vessel to the Hawkesbury, where he had taken in sixty large logs
of the tree which we had named the cedar. He had also purchased some of
the mahogany of this country. Whether cedar and mahogany were or were not
to be readily procured at Bengal, ought to have been well known to this
gentleman before he put himself to the trouble, delay, and expence of
procuring such a quantity*; but it was here generally looked upon as a
speculation that would not produce him much profit.
[* He was to allow one hundred pounds for as many trees; but we
understood that it was to be in the way of barter with articles, sugar,
spirits, etc.]
On the day of his sailing, suspecting (as was reported) some design to
seize his vessel, he sent on shore three people whom he had shipped here.
They rendezvoused at a hut in the town occupied by one John Chapman
Morris; and, on searching it, in the bed of one of them were found a
dozen of new Indian shirts marked D. W.; twenty-two new pulicate
handkerchiefs; and three pieces of striped gingham. On the possessor
being questioned, he said, that they were sold to him while he was at
Norfolk Island by the steward of Captain Manning's ship, the _Pitt_. As
this was a very improbable story, the house they were in was ordered by
the commanding officer to be pulled down. The property, having been
disclaimed by Mr. McClennan, was lodged with the provost-marshal; and the
parties given to understand, that a reference would be made to Norfolk
Island by the first opportunity.
On the 26th, some of our people witnessed an extraordinary transaction
which took place among the natives at the brick-fields. A young man of
the name of Bing-yi-wan-ne, well known in the settlement, being detected
in the crisis of an amour with Maw-ber-ry, the companion of another
native, Ye-ra-ni-be Go-ru-ey, the latter fell upon him with a club, and
being a powerful man, and of superior strength, absolutely beat him to
death. Bing-yi-wan-ne had some friends, who on the following day called
Ye-ra-ni-be to an account for the murder; when, the affair being
conducted with more regard to honour than justice, he came off with only
a spear-wound in his thigh.
The farmers began gathering their Indian corn about the latter end of
this month. The weather during the former and latter part of it was wet.
About the time of the equinox, the tides in the cove were observed to be
very high.
On the 28th Thomas Webb, a settler, who had removed from his farm at
Liberty Plains to another on the banks of the Hawkesbury, was dangerously
wounded there, while working on his grounds by some of the wood natives,
who had previously plundered his but. About the same time a party of
these people threw a spear at some soldiers who were going up the river
in a small boat. All these unpleasant circumstances were to be attributed
to the ill treatment the natives had received from the settlers.
At Prospect Hill a woman was bitten by a snake; but by the timely
application of some volatile salts by Mr. Irving, her life was saved.
April.] It was determined to let the Toongabbie Hills remain fallow for a
season, they being reported to be worn out. Other ground, which had been
prepared, was now sown; a spot called the Ninety Acres, and the hills
between Parramatta and Toongabbie.
On the 15th, a criminal court was assembled for the trial of John
Anderson and Joseph Marshall, settlers; and John Hyams, Joseph Dunstill,
Richard Watson, and Morgan Bryan, convicts; for a rape committed on the
body of one Mary Hartley, at the Hawkesbury. The court was obliged to
acquit the prisoners, owing to glaring contradiction in the witnesses, no
two of them, though several were examined, agreeing in the same point.
But as such a crime could not be passed with impunity, they were
recommitted, and on the 22nd tried for an assault, of which being very
clearly convicted, the two settlers and Morgan Bryan were sentenced to
receive each five hundred lashes, and the others three hundred each; of
which sentence they received one half, and were forgiven the remainder.
This was a most infamous transaction; and, though the sufferer was of bad
character, would have well warranted the infliction of capital punishment
on one of the offenders, if the witnesses had not prevaricated in their
testimony. They appeared to have cast off all the feelings of civilised
humanity, adopting as closely as they could follow them the manners of
the savage inhabitants of the country. One prisoner, John Rayner, was
also tried for a burglary, and being convicted received sentence of death.
On the 29th, a liberal allowance of slops was issued to the male and
female convicts in the different settlements, among which were some soap
to the men, and some thread, tape, and soap to the women.
A shed for the purpose of receiving their Indian corn was this month
begun by the settlers at the river, they and their servants bringing in
the materials, and government supplying the carpenters, tools, nails, etc.
The farmers now every where began putting their wheat into the ground,
except at the river, where they had scarcely made any preparations,
consuming their time and substance in drinking and rioting; and trusting
to the extreme fertility of the soil, which they declared would produce
an ample crop at any time without much labour. So silly and thoughtless
were these people, who were thus unworthily placed on the banks of a
river which, from its fertility and the effect of its inundations, might
not improperly be termed the _Nile_ of New South Wales.
May.] From the reduced state of the salted provisions, it became
necessary (such had often been the preamble of an order) to diminish the
ration of that article weekly to each person, and half the beef and half
the pork was stopped at once. In some measure to make this great
deduction lighter, three pints of peas were added. This circumstance
induced the commanding officer, on the day this alteration took place, to
hire the _Britannia_ to proceed to India for a cargo of salted provisions.
Supplies might arrive before she could return; but the war increased the
chances against us. He therefore took her up at fifteen shillings and
sixpence per ton per month; and, in order to save as much salt meat as
was possible, he directed the commissary to purchase such fresh pork as
the settlers and others might bring in good condition to the store,
issuing two pounds of fresh, in lieu of one of salt meat. During the time
this order continued, a barrow was killed and part sent to the store,
which weighed five hundred pounds, and a sow which weighed three hundred
and thirty-six pounds. They had both been fed a considerable time* on
Indian corn, and, according to the rate they sold at (the pork one
shilling per pound, and the corn five shillings per bushel) could neither
of them have repaid the expence of their feed.
[* The barrow two years and a half, and the sow about two years.]
On the 21st the colonial schooner returned from the Hawkesbury, bringing
upwards of eleven hundred bushels of remarkably fine Indian corn from the
store there. The master again reported his apprehensions that the
navigation of the river would be obstructed by the settlers, who
continued the practice of falling and rolling trees into the stream. He
found five feet less water at the store-wharf than when he was there in
February last, owing to the dry weather which had for some time past
prevailed.
At that settlement an open war seemed about this time to have commenced
between the natives and the settlers; and word was received over-land,
that two people were killed by them; one a settler of the name of Wilson,
and the other a freeman, one William Thorp, who had been left behind from
the _Britannia_, and had hired himself to this Wilson as a labourer. The
natives appeared in large bodies, men, women, and children, provided with
blankets and nets to carry off the corn, of which they appeared as fond
as the natives who lived among us, and seemed determined to take it
whenever and wherever they could meet with opportunities. In their
attacks they conducted themselves with much art; but where that failed
they had recourse to force, and on the least appearance of resistance
made use of their spears or clubs. To check at once, if possible, these
dangerous depredators, Captain Paterson directed a party of the corps to
be sent from Parramatta, with instructions to destroy as many as they
could meet with of the wood tribe (Be-dia-gal); and, in the hope of
striking terror, to erect gibbets in different places, whereon the bodies
of all they might kill were to be hung. It was reported, that several of
these people were killed in consequence of this order; but none of their
bodies being found, (perhaps if any were killed they were carried off by
their companions,) the number could not be ascertained. Some prisoners
however were taken, and sent to Sydney; one man, (apparently a cripple,)
five women, and some children. One of the women, with a child at her
breast, had been shot through the shoulder, and the same shot had wounded
the babe. They were immediately placed in a hut near our hospital, and
every care taken of them that humanity suggested. The man was said,
instead of being a cripple, to have been very active about the farms, and
instrumental in some of the murders which had been committed. In a short
time he found means to escape, and by swimming reached the north shore in
safety; whence, no doubt, he got back to his friends. Captain Paterson
hoped, by detaining the prisoners and treating them well, that some good
effect might result; but finding, after some time, that coercion, not
attention, was more likely to answer his ends, he sent the women back.
While they were with us, the wounded child died, and one of the women was
delivered of a boy, which died immediately. On our withdrawing the party,
the natives attacked a farm nearly opposite Richmond Hill, belonging to
one William Rowe, and put him and a very fine child to death, the wife,
after receiving several wounds, crawled down the bank, and concealed
herself among some reeds half immersed in the river, where she remained a
considerable time without assistance: being at length found, this poor
creature, after having seen her husband and her child slaughtered before
her eyes, was brought into the hospital at Parramatta, where she
recovered, though slowly, of her wounds. In consequence of this horrid
circumstance, another party of the corps was sent out; and while they
were there the natives kept at a distance. This duty now became
permanent; and the soldiers were distributed among the settlers for their
protection; a protection, however, that many of them did not merit.
Pemulwy, or some of his party, were not idle about Sydney; they even
ventured to appear within half a mile of the brickfield huts, and wound a
convict who was going to a neighbouring farm on business. As one of our
most frequent walks from the town was in that direction, this
circumstance was rather unpleasant; but the natives were not seen there
again.
On Sunday the 31st, about one o'clock, the signal was made at the
South Head for a sail; and about five there anchored in the cove the
_Endeavour_, a ship of eight hundred tons from Bombay, under the command
of Mr. Bampton, having on board one hundred and thirty-two head of
cattle, a quantity of rice, and the other articles of the contract
engaged by Lieutenant-governor Grose, except the salt provisions. She
had been eleven weeks from Bombay.
The cattle arrived, in general, in good condition; and Mr. Bampton had
been very successful in his care of them. He embarked one hundred and
thirty at Bombay, out of which he lost but one cow, and that died the
morning before his arrival.
On visiting the ship, the sight was truly gratifying; the cattle were
ranged on each side of the gun-deck, fore and aft, and not confined in
separate stalls; but so conveniently stowed, that they were a support to
each other. They were well provided with mats, and were constantly
cleaned; and when the ship tacked, the cattle which were to leeward were
regularly laid with their heads to windward, by people (twenty in number)
particularly appointed to look after them, independent of any duty in the
ship. The grain which was their food was, together with their water,
regularly given to them, and the deck they stood on was well aired, by
scuttles in the sides, and by wind sails.*
[* These circumstances are mentioned so particularly, in the hope that
they may prove useful hints to any persons intending, or who may be in
future employed, to convey cattle from India, or any other part of the
world, to New South Wales.]
Of this number of cattle forty were for draught, sixty for breeding, and
the remainder calves; but some of them so large, as to be valued and
taken at fifteen guineas per head.
On their landing, we were concerned to find that many of the draught
cattle were very aged; they were, it was true, in health; but younger
animals undoubtedly ought to have been procured; for of little use could
toothless, old, and blind beasts be to us.
At the settlement at the Hawkesbury, a woman who had been drinking was
found dead in her husband's arms. Webb the settler, who was wounded in
March last, died; and one settler (Rowe) and his child were killed in
this month.
June.] On the 4th of this month, being the anniversary of his Majesty's
birth, the commissary issued to each of the non-commissioned officers and
privates of the New South Wales corps, one pound of fresh pork and half a
pint of spirits; and to all other people victualled from the store one
gill each. At noon the regiment fired three volleys; and at one o'clock
the _Britannia_ and _Fancy_ twenty-one guns each in honour of the day.
Preparatory to the departure of the _Britannia_, some returns were
procured, which were necessary to be transmitted with the dispatches then
making up. Among others it appeared, that the following quantity of
ground had been this season sown with wheat: viz.
Acres
On account of government at and about Parramatta 340
Individuals at and about ditto 1214
Individuals at the River* 548½
Individuals at and about Sydney 618¾
Total 2721¼
[* This was the account given by the settlers; but their conduct gave
little room to believe they had been so industrious: they certainly ought
to have had a greater quantity.]
On the 18th the _Britannia_ sailed for India. As the state of the
settlement at the time of her departure required every exertion to be
made in procuring an immediate supply of provisions, Mr. Raven was
directed to repair to Batavia, to procure there if possible a cargo of
European salted meat. The necessity of his immediate return was so
urgent, that if he found on his arrival that only half a cargo could be
got, he was to fill up the remainder of the stowage with rice and sugar,
and make the best of his way back. If salted provisions were not to be
got at Batavia, he was to proceed to Calcutta. Should circumstances
run so much against us, as to cause his failure at both these ports,
Mr. Raven was at liberty to return by way of the Cape of Good Hope, as
provisions were at any rate to be procured, if possible.
On the 21st, the _Fancy_ sailed for Norfolk Island, taking a cargo of
rice and dholl for the use of that settlement; the Rev. Mr. Marsden also
embarked in her to marry and baptise such as stood in need of those rites.
On the 29th the colonial schooner brought another cargo of Indian corn
(one thousand one hundred and twelve bushels) from the Hawkesbury. For
want of storehouse room, great quantities were left lying before the
door, exposed to, and suffering much by the weather. As it had not been
measured or received by the store-keeper, the loss fell upon the owners.
The cattle lately arrived seemed to suffer by their change of climate;
one cow and several calves died; perhaps as much from mismanagement, as
by the weather; for, with very few exceptions, it was impossible to
select from among the prisoners, or those who had been such, any who
would feel an honest interest in executing the service in which they were
employed. They would pilfer half the grain entrusted to their care for
the cattle; they would lead them into the woods for pasturage, and there
leave them until obliged to conduct them in; they would neither clean
them nor themselves. Indolent, and by long habit worthless, no dependance
could be placed on them. In every instance they endeavoured to
circumvent; and whenever their exertions were called for, they first
looked about them to discover how those exertions might be turned to
their own advantage. Could it then be wondered at, if little had been
done since our establishment? and must it not rather excite admiration to
see how much had been done? Whatever was to be seen was the effect of the
most unremitting, and perhaps degrading vigilance on the part of those in
whom the executive power had been from time to time vested, and of the
interest that many individuals had felt in raising this country from its
original insignificance to some degree of consequence.
Among the casualties of the month must be noticed the death of a man
unfortunately drowned in attempting to save the life of a woman who was
overset with himself in a passage-boat, coming from Parramatta. He had
just got her into safety when she pulled him under water, and he
perished. It is extremely hazardous, and requires very great caution in
those who meddle with persons that are drowning.
On the 27th, two soldiers, going with their arms to Parramatta, stopped
on the road to fire at a mark. One of them, inconsiderately, placing
himself behind the tree which was the mark, and presenting himself in the
unfortunate moment of his companion's firing, received the ball in his
thigh near the groin. He was brought to Sydney as soon as it was
possible, when Mr. Harris the surgeon of the regiment amputated the limb.
The wound was so near the groin, however, that the tourniquet was fixed
with much difficulty and hazard*.
[* The patient's name was Nicholas Downie. He recovered, after several
weeks care and attention on the part of Mr. Harris; but his comrade
suffered much anxiety during the cure.]
There was at this time under the care of the surgeon Joseph Hatton, a
settler at the Eastern Farms, an elderly man, who had been dangerously
stabbed in the belly by his wife, a young woman (named before their
marriage Rosamond Sparrow), in a fit of jealousy and passion. On his
recovery, he earnestly requested that no punishment might be inflicted on
her, but that she might be put away from him.