From the Beginning of June, to the Departure of the Ships for Europe.
Hours of festivity, which under happier skies pass away unregarded,
and are soon consigned to oblivion, acquire in this forlorn and distant
circle a superior degree of acceptable importance.
On the anniversary of the King's birthday all the officers not on duty,
both of the garrison and his Majesty's ships, dined with the Governor.
On so joyful an occasion, the first too ever celebrated in our new
settlement, it were needless to say, that loyal conviviality dictated
every sentiment, and inspired every guest. Among other public toasts
drank, was, Prosperity to Sydney Cove, in Cumberland county, now named
so by authority. At day-light in the morning the ships of war had fired
twenty-one guns each, which was repeated at noon, and answered by three
vollies from the battalion of marines.
Nor were the officers alone partakers of the general relaxation. The
four unhappy wretches labouring under sentence of banishment were freed
from their fetters, to rejoin their former society; and three days given
as holidays to every convict in the colony. Hospitality too, which ever
acquires a double relish by being extended, was not forgotten on the 4th
of June, when each prisoner, male and female, received an allowance of
grog; and every non-commissioned officer and private soldier had the
honor of drinking prosperity to his royal master, in a pint of porter,
served out at the flag staff, in addition to the customary allowance
of spirits. Bonfires concluded the evening, and I am happy to say, that
excepting a single instance which shall be taken notice of hereafter, no
bad consequence, or unpleasant remembrance, flowed from an indulgence so
amply bestowed.
About this time (June) an accident happened, which I record with much
regret. The whole of our black cattle, consisting of five cows and a
bull, either from not being properly secured, or from the negligence
of those appointed to take care of them, strayed into the woods, and in
spite of all the search we have been able to make, are not yet found.
As a convict of the name of Corbet, who was accused of a theft, eloped
nearly at the same time, it was at first believed, that he had taken the
desperate measure of driving off the cattle, in order to subsist on them
as long as possible; or perhaps to deliver them to the natives. In this
uncertainty, parties to search were sent out in different directions;
and the fugitive declared an outlaw, in case of not returning by a fixed
day. After much anxiety and fatigue, those who had undertaken the task
returned without finding the cattle. But on the 21st of the month,
Corbet made his appearance near a farm belonging to the Governor, and
entreated a convict, who happened to be on the spot, to give him some
food, as he was perishing for hunger. The man applied to, under pretence
of fetching what he asked for, went away and immediately gave the
necessary information, in consequence of which a party under arms was
sent out and apprehended him. When the poor wretch was brought in, he
was greatly emaciated and almost famished. But on proper restoratives
being administered, he was so far recovered by the 24th, as to be able
to stand his trial, when he pleaded Guilty to the robbery with which he
stood charged, and received sentence of death. In the course of repeated
examinations it plainly appeared, he was an utter stranger to the place
where the cattle might be, and was in no shape concerned in having
driven them off.
Samuel Peyton, convict, for having on the evening of the King's
birth-day broke open an officer's marquee, with an intent to commit
robbery, of which he was fully convicted, had sentence of death passed
on him at the same time as Corbet; and on the following day they were
both executed, confessing the justness of their fate, and imploring the
forgiveness of those whom they had injured. Peyton, at the time of his
suffering, was but twenty years of age, the greatest part of which
had been invariably passed in the commission of crimes, that at length
terminated in his ignominious end. The following letter, written by a
fellow convict to the sufferer's unhappy mother, I shall make no apology
for presenting to the reader; it affords a melancholy proof, that
not the ignorant and untaught only have provoked the justice of their
country to banish them to this remote region.
Sydney Cove, Port Jackson,
New South Wales, 24th June, 1788.
"My dear and honoured mother!
"With a heart oppressed by the keenest sense of anguish, and too much
agitated by the idea of my very melancholy condition, to express my own
sentiments, I have prevailed on the goodness of a commiserating friend,
to do me the last sad office of acquainting you with the dreadful fate
that awaits me.
"My dear mother! with what agony of soul do I dedicate the few
last moments of my life, to bid you an eternal adieu! my doom being
irrevocably fixed, and ere this hour to-morrow I shall have quitted this
vale of wretchedness, to enter into an unknown and endless eternity. I
will not distress your tender maternal feelings by any long comment on
the cause of my present misfortune. Let it therefore suffice to say,
that impelled by that strong propensity to evil, which neither the
virtuous precepts nor example of the best of parents could eradicate, I
have at length fallen an unhappy, though just, victim to my own follies.
"Too late I regret my inattention to your admonitions, and feel myself
sensibly affected by the remembrance of the many anxious moments you
have passed on my account. For these, and all my other transgressions,
however great, I supplicate the Divine forgiveness; and encouraged by
the promises of that Saviour who died for us all, I trust to receive
that mercy in the world to come, which my offences have deprived me of
all hope, or expectation of, in this. The affliction which this will
cost you, I hope the Almighty will enable you to bear. Banish from your
memory all my former indiscretions, and let the cheering hope of a happy
meeting hereafter, console you for my loss. Sincerely penitent for my
sins; sensible of the justice of my conviction and sentence, and firmly
relying on the merits of a Blessed Redeemer, I am at perfect peace with
all mankind, and trust I shall yet experience that peace, which this
world cannot give. Commend my soul to the Divine mercy. I bid you an
eternal farewell.
"Your unhappy dying Son,
"SAMUEL PEYTON."
After this nothing occurred with which I think it necessary to trouble
the reader. The contents of the following chapters could not, I
conceive, be so properly interwoven in the body of the work; I have,
therefore, assigned them a place by themselves, with a view that the
conclusions adopted in them may be more strongly enforced on the minds
of those, to whom they are more particularly addressed.