An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales Volume I Part 41

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 pa.s.sage-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 pa.s.sion. On his recovery, he earnestly requested that no punishment might be inflicted on her, but that she might be put away from him.

CHAPTER XXIX

Ration A Criminal and a Civil Court held Circ.u.mstances of the death of Francis T. Daveney Salt made Wilson, Knight, and the natives The new mill _Providence_ arrives from England Four convicts brought from Port Stephens Public labour Storm The _Fancy_ arrives from Norfolk Island The _Supply_ and _Reliance_ arrive Governor Hunter's commission read Transactions The India s.h.i.+ps sail Another arrival from England Military promotions Colonial regulations The _Providence_, _Supply_, and _Young William_ sail The _Sovereign_ stores.h.i.+p arrives from England Criminal court held Convict executed Printing-press employed Ration Information from Norfolk Island The Cattle lost in 1788 discovered Transactions Bennillong's Conduct after his return from England Civil Court held Harvest Regulations Natives Meteorological phenomenon at the Hawkesbury Mr. Barrow's death Deaths in 1795

July.] The salted provisions being all expended, except a few casks which were reserved for the non-commissioned officers and private soldiers of the corps, on Sat.u.r.day the 11th of the month the convicts received the following ration:

Indian corn 12 pounds (unground); Rice 5 ditto; Dholl 3 pints; Sugar 1 pound;

being the first time, since the establishment of the colony, that they had gone from the store without receiving either salted or fresh provisions. On the Monday following the military received,

Salt pork 2 pounds; Indian corn 12 ditto (unground); Peas 3 pints; Rice 3 ditto; Sugar 6 ounces.

This being the state of the stores, supplies were ardently to be desired.

It was truly unfortunate, that Mr. Bampton had not been able to procure any salted provisions at Bombay, but in lieu thereof had brought us a quant.i.ty of rice. We now began to grow grain sufficient for our consumption from crop to crop, and grain that was at all times preferred to the imports from India. Dholl and rice were never well received by the prisoners as an equivalent for flour, particularly when peas formed a part of the ration; and it was to be lamented that a necessity ever existed, of forcing upon them such trash as they had from time to time been obliged to digest.

The effects of this ration soon appeared; several attacks were made on individuals; the house occupied by Mr. Muir was broken into, and all or nearly all that gentleman's property stolen; some of his wearing apparel was laid in his way the next day; but he still remained a considerable sufferer by the visit. Some private stock yards were attacked; but finding them too vigilantly watched, a fellow played off a trick that he thought would go down with the hungry; he stole a very fine greyhound, and instead of secretly employing him in procuring occasionally a fresh meal, he actually killed the dog, and sold it to different people in the town for kangaroo at nine-pence per pound. Being detected in this villainous traffic, he was severely punished.

A criminal court was a.s.sembled on the 20th for the trial of Mary Pawson, a settler's wife at the river, for the crime of arson. On the trial there was strong evidence of malice in the prisoner against the wife of the owner of the house; but not any that led directly to convict her of having set the house on fire. She was therefore acquitted; but the adjoining settlers disliking such a character in their neighbourhood, the husband, who had nothing against him but this wife, sold a very good farm which he possessed on a creek of the river, and withdrew to another situation, remote and less advantageous. At the same time a notorious offender, James Barry, was tried for attempting to break into a settler's house at the Ponds with an intent to steal, the proof of which was too clear to admit of his escape. He was sentenced to suffer one thousand lashes, and on the Sat.u.r.day following received two hundred and seventy of them.

On the same day a civil court was held for the purpose of granting probate of the will of Thomas Daveney, late a superintendant of convicts, who died on the 3rd of the month. The cause of his death was extraordinary. He had been appointed a superintendant of the convicts employed in agriculture at Toongabbie by the late Governor Phillip, who, considering him trust-worthy, placed great confidence in him. Some time after Governor Phillip's departure, his conduct was represented to the lieutenant-governor in such a light, that he dismissed him from his situation, and he retired to a farm which he had at Toongabbie. He had been always addicted to the use of spirituous liquors; but he now applied himself more closely to them, to drown the recollection of his disgrace.

In this vice he continued until the 3rd of May last, on which day he came to Sydney in a state of insanity. He went to the house of a friend in the town, determined, as it seemed, to destroy himself, for he there drank, unknown to the people of the house, as fast as he could swallow, nearly half a gallon of Cape brandy. He fell directly upon the floor of the room he was in (which happened to be of brick); where the people, thinking nothing worse than intoxication ailed him, suffered him to lie for ten or twelve hours; in consequence he was seized with a violent inflammation which broke out on the arm, and that part of the body which lay next the ground; to this, after suppuration had taken place, and several operations had been performed to extract the pus, a mortification succeeded, and at last carried him off on the 3rd of July. A few hours before his death he requested to see the ludge-advocate, to whom he declared, that it had been told him that he had been suspected of having improperly and tyrannically abused the confidence which he had enjoyed under Governor Phillip; but that he could safely declare as he was shortly to appear before the last tribunal, that nothing lay on his conscience which could make his last moments in this life painful. At his own request he was interred in the burying ground at Parramatta. He had been advancing his means pretty rapidly; for, after his decease, his stock of goats, consisting of eighty-six males and females, sold by public auction for three hundred and fifty-seven pounds fifteen s.h.i.+llings. He left a widow (formerly Catharine Hounson) who had for several years been deranged in her intellects.

In addition to the superintendant, there died in this month a woman, Jane Forbes, the wife of Butler, a settler at Prospect Hill, who fell into the fire while preparing their breakfast, and received such injury that she shortly after expired.

August.] From the scantiness of salted provisions, the article salt was become as scarce. There came out in the _Surprise_, as a settler, a person of the name of Boston. Among other useful knowledge* which we were given to understand he possessed, he at this time offered his skill in making salt from sea-water. As it was much wanted, his offers were accepted, and, an eligible spot at Bennillong's Point (as the east point of the cove had long been named) being chosen, he began his operations, for which he had seven men allowed him, whose labour, however, only produced three or four bushels of salt in more than as many weeks.

[* Having been sent out by government to supply us with salted fish, he had some time before offered to procure and salt fish for the settlement; but he required boats and men, and more a.s.sistance than it was possible to supply. He proposed to try Broken Bay.]

His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales's birthday was duly noticed. At one o'clock the _Endeavour_ fired twenty-one guns.

Wilson (Bun-bo-e), immediately after his return from Port Stephens with the deputy-surveyor, went off to the natives at the river. Another vagabond, who like himself had been a convict, one Knight, thinking there must be some sweets in the life which Wilson led, determined to share them with him, and went off to the woods. About the middle of this month they both came into the town, accompanied by some of their companions. On the day following it appeared that their visit was for the purpose of forcing a wife from among the women of this district; for in the midst of a considerable uproar, which was heard near the bridge, Wilson and Knight were discovered, each dragging a girl by the arm (whose age could not have been beyond nine or ten years) a.s.sisted by their new a.s.sociates. The two white men being soon secured, and the children taken care of, the mob dispersed. Wilson and Knight were taken to the cells and punished, and it was intended to employ them both in hard labour; but they found means to escape, and soon mixed again with companions whom they preferred to our overseers.

About this time the natives were, during two days, engaged in very severe contests. Much blood was shed, and many wounds inflicted; but no one was killed. It appeared to afford much diversion; for they were constantly well attended by all descriptions of people, notwithstanding the risk they ran of being wounded by a random spear.

On the 26th that settlement was gratified by the arrival of his Majesty's s.h.i.+p _Providence_, of twenty-eight guns, commanded by Captain Broughton, from England. She sailed thence on the 25th of February last, in company with his Majesty's s.h.i.+ps _Reliance_ and _Supply_, which s.h.i.+ps she left at Rio de Janeiro some time in May last. We had the satisfaction of learning that Governor Hunter was on board the _Reliance_, and might be daily expected.

The _Providence_ met with very bad weather on her pa.s.sage from the Brazil coast, and was driven past this harbour as far to the northward as Port Stephens, in which she anch.o.r.ed. There, to the great surprise of Captain Broughton, he found and received on board four white people, (if four miserable, naked, dirty, and smoke-dried men could be called white,) runaways from this settlement. By referring to the transactions of the month of September 1790, it will be found that five convicts, John Tarwood, George Lee, George Connoway, John Watson, and Joseph Sutton, escaped from the settlement at Parramatta, and, providing themselves with a wretched weak boat, which they stole from the people at the South Head, disappeared, and were supposed to have met a death which, one might have imagined, they went without the Heads to seek. Four of these people (Joseph Sutton having died) were now met with in this harbour by the officers of the _Providence_, and brought back to the colony. They told a melancholy tale of their sufferings in the boat; and for many days after their arrival pa.s.sed their time in detailing to the crowds both of black and white people which attended them their adventures in Port Stephens, the first harbour they made. Having lived like the savages among whom they dwelt, their change of food soon disagreed with them, and they were all taken ill, appearing to be princ.i.p.ally affected with abdominal swellings. They spoke in high terms of the pacific disposition and gentle manners of the natives. They were at some distance inland when Mr. Grimes was in Port Stephens; but heard soon after of the schooner's visit, and well knew, and often afterwards saw, the man who had been fired at, but not killed at that time as was supposed, by Wilson. Each of them had had names given him, and given with several ceremonies. Wives also were allotted them, and one or two had children. They were never required to go out on any occasion of hostility, and were in general supplied by the natives with fish or other food, being considered by them (for so their situation only could be construed) as unfortunate strangers thrown upon their sh.o.r.e from the mouth of the yawning deep, and ent.i.tled to their protection. They told us a ridiculous story, that the natives appeared to wors.h.i.+p them, often a.s.suring them, when they began to understand each other, that they were undoubtedly the ancestors of some of them who had fallen in battle, and had returned from the sea to visit them again; and one native appeared firmly to believe that his father was come back in the person of either Lee or Connoway, and took him to the spot where his body had been burnt. On being told that immense numbers of people existed far beyond their little knowledge, they instantly p.r.o.nounced them to be the spirits of their countrymen, which, after death, had migrated into other regions.

It appeared from these four men, that the language to the northward differed wholly from any that we knew. Among the natives who lived with us, there were none who understood all that they said, and of those who occasionally came in, one only could converse with them. He was a very fine lad, of the name of Wur-gan. His mother had been born and bred beyond the mountains, but one luckless day, paying a visit with some of her tribe to the banks of the Dee-rab-bun (for so the Hawkesbury was named) she was forcibly prevented returning, and, being obliged to submit to the embraces of an amorous and powerful Be-dia-gal, the fruit of her visit was this boy. Speaking herself more dialects than one, she taught her son all she knew, and he, being of quick parts, and a roving disposition, caught all the different dialects from Botany Bay to Port Stephens.

We understood that Lieutenant-governor Grose in the _Daedalus_ had reached Rio de Janeiro in eleven weeks from his sailing hence, and that all on board were in health.

Public labour was scarcely anywhere performed in this month, owing to the extreme badness of the weather which prevailed. The rain and wind were so violent for some days after the arrival of the _Providence_, that neither that s.h.i.+p nor the _Endeavour_ had much communication with the sh.o.r.e.

Accounts were received from the Hawkesbury, that several farms on the creeks were under water; and the person who brought the account was nearly drowned in his way over a plain named the Race-Ground. Paling could no where stand the force of the storm. Several chimnies and much plaster fell, and every house was wet. At Parramatta much damage was done; and at Toongabbie (a circ.u.mstance most acutely felt) a very large barn and thres.h.i.+ng-floor were destroyed. The schooner had been loading with corn at the river, and, though she left the store on the 11th, did not reach Sydney until the 20th, having met with much bad weather. During the storm, the column at the South Head fell in. This, however, could be more readily repaired than the barn and the thres.h.i.+ng-floor at Toongabbie, which were serious losses, and had cost government a much larger sum than the beacon.

Several of the cattle lately arrived perished in this bad weather.

To eke out the salt meat that was reserved for the military, two Cape cows, which would not breed, were killed and served out to them during this month.

September.] After an absence of eleven weeks, the _Fancy_ arrived on the 3rd from Norfolk Island. Her pa.s.sage thither was made in six days; but on her return she ran within one hundred and thirty miles of this port in three or four days; yet afterwards met with contrary and heavy gales of wind which kept her out a month. On the 28th of last month she was off the south head of Broken Bay in a heavy gale of wind, and was, by being close in with the land in thick weather, in extreme danger. Of a large quant.i.ty of stock (the property of Mr. Balmain, who left Norfolk Island to take upon him the charge of the general hospital here), but a very small quant.i.ty remained alive after the gale.

The most favourable accounts were received from that settlement. Plenty reigned throughout. Every barn was full. Four thousand pounds of fresh pork having been cured, the lieutenant-governor had forty tons of salt provisions to spare, which he offered to this colony. The wharf and crane at Cascade were rather improved than simply repaired, and an overshot water-mill had been erected at the trifling expence of three ewe sheep to the constructor, which ground and dressed eighteen bushels of flour in a day.

William Hogg, a prisoner well known and approved at this place for his abilities as a silversmith, and an actor in the walk of low comedy, put an end to his existence in a very deliberate manner a few days before the _Fancy_ sailed. Spirits being in circulation after her arrival, he went to the 'Grog-shop' as long as he had money; but, finding that he had no credit, he could no longer endure the loss of character which he thought attached to it; and though he did not 'make his quietus with a bare bodkin,' yet he found a convenient rope that put him out of the world.

The 7th of September was marked by the arrival of the governor in chief of these settlements. The signal was made for two sail between eight and nine o'clock in the morning. The wind being from the northward, they did not reach the anchorage until late; his Majesty's s.h.i.+p the _Supply_, commanded by Lieutenant William Kent, getting in about sun-set; and the _Reliance_, with the governor on board, about eight at night. Their pa.s.sage from Rio de Janeiro was long (fourteen weeks) and very rough, until the s.h.i.+ps came off Van Dieman's Land. Of our late bad weather they had felt nothing.

Situated as the colony was in point of provisions, we learned with infinite concern, that a stores.h.i.+p which had once been under Governor Hunter's orders, had, from being overloaded, been unavoidably left behind, and had yet to run the chance of being taken by the enemies'

cruizers; and that by the two s.h.i.+ps now arrived we had only gained a few barrels of provisions salted at Rio de Janeiro; a town clock; the princ.i.p.al parts of a large wind-mill; two officers of the New South Wales corps; Mr. S. Leeds an a.s.sistant-surgeon, and Mr. D. Payne a master boat-builder.

His excellency did not take upon him the exercise of his authority until the 11th, on which day his Majesty's commission was publicly read by the judge-advocate, all descriptions of persons being present, His excellency, in a very pertinent speech, declared the expectations he had from every one's conduct, touching with much delicacy on that of the persons lately sent here for a certain offence, (some of whom were present, but who unfortunately kept at too great a distance to bear him,) and strongly urging the necessity of a general unanimity in support of his Majesty's government. He was afterwards sworn in by the judge-advocate at his office.* An address, signed by the civil and military officers on occasion of his return among them as governor, was presented to his excellency a few days after his public appearance in that important capacity.

[* Before Captain Paterson gave up his command, all the prisoners in confinement were pardoned and liberated. Rayner, under sentence of death, was pardoned by the governor some time after. In consequence of this act of grace, several runaways gave themselves up.]

That he might as speedily as possible be acquainted with the state of the colony, he ordered a general muster to be taken by the commissary, appointing different days at Sydney, Parramatta, and the Hawkesbury, in order that correct accounts might be obtained of the number and distribution of every person (the military excepted) in those districts; and he purposed in person to inspect the state of the different farms. He recommended it to all persons who had lands in cultivation to plant with Indian corn as much of them as might not at that time be under any other grain; urging them, as it was the proper season, not to let it pa.s.s by, it being an essential article in the nourishment of live stock, the increase of which was of such importance to the settlement, that he could not but advise the utmost care and economy in the use of what might then and in future be in the possession of settlers and other persons.

Mr. Bampton having given his s.h.i.+p such repairs as he was able in this port, the _Endeavour_ and _Fancy_ sailed for India on the 18th. He purposed touching at New Zealand and at Norfolk Island. We found after their departure, that, notwithstanding so many as fifty persons whose transportation had expired had been permitted to leave the colony in the _Endeavour_, nearly as many more had found means to secrete themselves on board her. As she was to touch at Norfolk Island, hopes were entertained of getting the runaways back again, as the loss even of one man's labour was at this time an object of consequence.

As many labouring people as could be got together were employed during the month in receiving such articles as had been brought in the king's s.h.i.+ps for the colony.

The weather during the month was very variable; and three women and two men died. Of these one was much regretted, as his loss would be severely felt; this was Mr. J. Irving, who, dying before the governor arrived, knew not that he had been appointed an a.s.sistant to the surgeons with a salary of fifty pounds per annum.

October.] The police and civil duties of the town and district of Sydney were now regulated by civil magistrates. At Parramatta, Lieutenant McArthur continued to carry on the duties to which he had been appointed by Lieutenant-Governor Grose, the public service at that place requiring the inspection and superintendance of an officer.

On Sunday the 4th of this month the _Young William_, the stores.h.i.+p whose unavoidable delay in her sailing we had regretted on the arrival of the governor without her, anch.o.r.ed safe in the cove from England, after a short pa.s.sage of four months and nine days, with a cargo of provisions only. She sailed from Spithead in company with the _Sovereign_, another stores.h.i.+p, on the 25th of May, taking her route by the way of Rio de Janeiro, where she anch.o.r.ed on the 12th of July, leaving it on the 21st of the same month; and meeting with very bad weather nearly the whole of the voyage, she s.h.i.+pped great quant.i.ties of water; and, being very deeply laden, the vessel was considerably strained.

By letters received from this s.h.i.+p we learned, that some promotions had taken place in the New South Wales corps. Captain Nicholas Nepean had obtained the commission of second major; Lieutenant John McArthur had succeeded to his company; Lieutenant John Townson had got the company late belonging to Captain Hill; and Ensigns Clephan and Piper were made lieutenants, all without purchase. Messrs. Kent and Bell, the naval agents, who left this country in the _Britannia_ in September 1794, arrived safely in England in March last.

In consequence of this arrival the governor had it in his power to issue a better, though not so ample a ration of provisions as he could have desired. The supply had not been sufficient to allow him to order more than four pounds ten ounces and two thirds of an ounce of pork, and four pounds of flour, to the convicts. The same quant.i.ty of salt meat was ordered for the military; but they received two pounds of flour more than the prisoners. The other parts of the weekly ration remained nearly the same as before, except the article of sugar, the convicts receiving six ounces instead of one pound and a half of that article.

The report of the general muster which was ordered in the last month having been laid before the governor, he thought proper to make some regulations in the a.s.sistance afforded by government to settlers and others holding grants of land. To the officers who occupied grounds was continued the number of men allowed them by lieutenant-governor Grose; viz ten for agriculture, and three for domestic purposes. Notwithstanding this far exceeded the number which had at home been thought necessary, the governor did not conceive this to be the moment for reducing it, much as he wanted men. A wheat harvest was approaching; ground was planting with Indian corn; not a man was unemployed; but he saw and explained that a reduction must take place; that government could not be supposed much longer to feed, maintain, and clothe the hands that wrought the ground, and at the same time pay for the produce of their labour, particularly when every public work was likely to stand still for want of labourers.

He was sensible that the a.s.sistance which had been given had not been thrown away, and that the small number allowed by government could never have produced such rapid approaches toward that independence which he thought, from what he had already seen of the cultivation of the country, was now much nearer than at his leaving it in 1791 he could have conceived to be possible. To the settlers* who arrived in the _Surprise_ he allowed five male convicts; to the superintendants, constables, and store-keepers, four; to settlers from free people**, two; to settlers from prisoners, one; and to sergeants of the New South Wales corps, one.

[* Messrs. Boston, Pearce, and Ellis.]