The Progress made in the Settlement; and the Situation of Affairs at the
Time of the Ship, which conveys this Account, sailing for England.
For the purpose of expediting the public work, the male convicts have
been divided into gangs, over each of which a person, selected from
among themselves, is placed. It is to be regretted that Government did
not take this matter into consideration before we left England, and
appoint proper persons with reasonable salaries to execute the office of
overseers; as the consequence of our present imperfect plan is such, as
to defeat in a great measure the purposes for which the prisoners were
sent out. The female convicts have hitherto lived in a state of total
idleness; except a few who are kept at work in making pegs for tiles,
and picking up shells for burning into lime. For the last time I repeat,
that the behaviour of all classes of these people since our arrival in
the settlement has been better than could, I think, have been expected
from them.
Temporary wooden storehouses covered with thatch or shingles, in which
the cargoes of all the ships have been lodged, are completed; and
an hospital is erected. Barracks for the military are considerably
advanced; and little huts to serve, until something more permanent can
be finished, have been raised on all sides. Notwithstanding this the
encampments of the marines and convicts are still kept up; and to
secure their owners from the coldness of the nights, are covered in with
bushes, and thatched over.
The plan of a town I have already said is marked out. And as freestone
of an excellent quality abounds, one requisite towards the completion
of it is attained. Only two houses of stone are yet begun, which are
intended for the Governor and Lieutenant Governor. One of the greatest
impediments we meet with is a want of limestone, of which no signs
appear. Clay for making bricks is in plenty, and a considerable quantity
of them burned and ready for use.
In enumerating the public buildings I find I have been so remiss as
to omit an observatory, which is erected at a small distance from
the encampments. It is nearly completed, and when fitted up with the
telescopes and other astronomical instruments sent out by the Board of
Longitude, will afford a desirable retreat from the listlessness of a
camp evening at Port Jackson. One of the principal reasons which induced
the Board to grant this apparatus was, for the purpose of enabling
Lieutenant Dawes, of the marines, (to whose care it is intrusted) to
make observations on a comet which is shortly expected to appear in the
southern hemisphere. The latitude of the observatory, from the result of
more than three hundred observations, is fixed at 33 deg 52 min 30 sec
south, and the longitude at 151 deg 16 min 30 sec east of Greenwich. The
latitude of the south head which forms the entrance of the harbour, 33
deg 51 min, and that of the north head opposite to it at 33 deg 49 min
45 sec south.
Since landing here our military force has suffered a diminution of only
three persons, a serjeant and two privates. Of the convicts fifty-four
have perished, including the executions. Amidst the causes of this
mortality, excessive toil and a scarcity of food are not to be numbered,
as the reader will easily conceive, when informed, that they have
the same allowance of provisions as every officer and soldier in the
garrison; and are indulged by being exempted from labour every Saturday
afternoon and Sunday. On the latter of those days they are expected
to attend divine service, which is performed either within one of the
storehouses, or under a great tree in the open air, until a church can
be built.
Amidst our public labours, that no fortified post, or place of security,
is yet begun, may be a matter of surprise. Were an emergency in the
night to happen, it is not easy to say what might not take place before
troops, scattered about in an extensive encampment, could be formed, so
as to act. An event that happened a few evenings since may, perhaps, be
the means of forwarding this necessary work. In the dead of night the
centinels on the eastern side of the cove were alarmed by the voices
of the Indians, talking near their posts. The soldiers on this occasion
acted with their usual firmness, and without creating a disturbance,
acquainted the officer of the guard with the circumstance, who
immediately took every precaution to prevent an attack, and at the same
time gave orders that no molestation, while they continued peaceable,
should be offered them. From the darkness of the night, and the distance
they kept at, it was not easy to ascertain their number, but from the
sound of the voices and other circumstances, it was calculated at near
thirty. To their intentions in honouring us with this visit (the only
one we have had from them in the last five months) we are strangers,
though most probably it was either with a view to pilfer, or to
ascertain in what security we slept, and the precautions we used in the
night. When the bells of the ships in the harbour struck the hour of the
night, and the centinels called out on their posts "All's well," they
observed a dead silence, and continued it for some minutes, though
talking with the greatest earnestness and vociferation but the moment
before. After having remained a considerable time they departed without
interchanging a syllable with our people.