On the 17th, we were visited by a violent gale of wind at southwest, which blew so strong, that the Resolution was at one time nearly on shore. At Parramatta, during the gale, a public granary, in which were upwards of two thousand four hundred bushels of shelled maize or Indian corn, caught fire, through the carelessness of some servants who were boiling food for stock close to the building (which was a thatched one), and all the corn, together with a number of fine hogs the property of an individual, were destroyed.

Some severe contests among the natives took place during this month in and about the town of Sydney. In fact, we still knew very little of the manners and customs of these people, notwithstanding the advantage we possessed in the constant residence of many of them among us, and the desire that they showed of cultivating our friendship. At the Hawkesbury they were not so friendly; a settler there and his servant were nearly murdered in their hut by some natives from the woods, who stole upon them with such secrecy, as to wound and overpower them before they could procure assistance. The servant was so much hurt by them with spears and clubs, as to be in danger of losing his life. A few days after this circumstance, a body of natives having attacked the settlers, and carried off their clothes, provisions, and whatever else they could lay their hands on, the sufferers collected what arms they could, and following, them, seven or eight of the plunderers were killed on the spot.

This mode of treating them had become absolutely necessary, from the frequency and evil effects of their visits; but whatever the settlers at the river suffered was entirely brought on them by their own misconduct: there was not a doubt but many natives had been wantonly fired upon; and when their children, after the flight of the parents, have fallen into the settlers hands, they have been detained at their huts, notwithstanding the earnest entreaties of the parents for their return.

On the 26th, the Daedalus sailed for Norfolk Island, having on board a quantity of the stores and provisions lately received from England, and a detachment of officers and men of the New South Wales corps to relieve those on duty there.

Two female natives, wishing to withdraw from the cruelty which they, with others of their sex, experienced from their countrymen, were allowed to embark in the Daedalus, and were consigned to the care of the lieutenant-governor. One of them was sister to Bennillong; the other was connected with the young man his companion. Perhaps they wished to wait in peace and retirement the arrival of those who were bound to protect them.

At the latter end of the month some warrants of emancipation passed the seal of the territory, and received the lieutenant-governor's signature. The objects of this indulgence were, Robert Sidaway, who received an unconditional pardon in consideration of his diligence, unremitting good conduct, and strict integrity in his employment for several years as the public baker of the settlement; and William Leach, who was permitted to quit this country, but not to return to England during the unexpired term of his sentence of transportation, which was for seven years. Eight convicts were pardoned on condition of their serving in the New South Wales corps until regularly discharged therefrom. James Larra, James Ruffler, and Richard Partridge (convicts for life), received a conditional pardon, or (as was the term among themselves on this occasion) were made free on the ground, to enable them to become settlers; as were also William Joyce and Benjamin Carver for the same purpose. Joyce had been transported for fourteen years, and Carver for life. Freedom on the ground was also given to William Waring, a convict for life.

It was pleasing to see so many people withdrawing from the society of vice and wretchedness, and forming such a character for themselves as to be thought deserving of emancipation.

On the 29th, the Fancy snow left this port. Mr. Dell, the commander, purposed running to Norfolk Island, but affected a secrecy with respect to his subsequent destination. It was generally surmised, however, that he was bound to some island whereat timber fit for naval purposes was to be procured; and at which whatever ship Mr. Bampton should bring with him might touch and load with a cargo for India. The snow was armed, was about one hundred and seventy tons burden, had a large and expensive complement of officers and men, a guard of sepoys, and a commission from the Bombay marine*. New Zealand was by us supposed to be the place; as force, or at least the appearance of it, was there absolutely requisite.

[* Mr. Dell had likewise on board a much greater number of cross-cut saws than were necessary to procure wood for the mere use of the vessel.]

The wife of Griffin the drummer, whose hoarded guineas were supposed to have been stolen by Charles, or (as he was more commonly named) Pat Gray, killed herself with drinking, expiring in a fit of intoxication while the husband was employed in the lower part of the harbour in fishing for his family. She left him four children to provide for.

October.] This month opened with an indispensable act of justice: John Bevan, a wretched convict, whose name has been frequently mentioned in this narrative, broke into the house of William Fielder at Sydney, and being caught in the fact, it was substantiated against him beyond the chance of escape; he was of course fully convicted, and received sentence of death. The trial was on the 1st, and at nine in the morning of the 6th he was executed. At the tree he confessed nothing, but seemed terrified when he found himself so near the ignominious death that he had so long merited. On being taken to hear divine service the Sunday preceding his execution, he seemed not to be in the smallest degree affected by the clergyman's discourse, which was composed for the occasion; but was visibly touched at the singing of the psalm intitled the 'Lamentation of a Sinner.'

On the evening preceding the day of his execution, information was received from Parramatta, that Simon Burn, a settler, had been stabbed to the heart about eight o'clock in the evening before, of which wound he died in an hour. The man who perpetrated this atrocious act was a convict named Hill, a butcher by trade. It appeared on the trial, which lasted five hours, that Hill had borne the deceased much animosity for some time, and, having been all the day (which, to aggravate the offence, happened to be Sunday) in company drinking with him, took occasion to quarrel with a woman with whom he cohabited, and following her into an empty house, whither she had run to avoid a beating, the deceased, unhappily for him, interfered, and was by Hill stabbed to the heart; living, as has been said, about an hour, but having just strength enough to declare in the presence of several witnesses, that the butcher had killed him. The prisoner attempted to set up an alibi for his defence; but the fact of killing was incontrovertibly fixed upon him, as well as the malice which urged his hand to take away the life of his fellow-creature, and to send him, with the sin upon his head of having profaned the Lord's day by rioting and drunkenness, unprepared before his Maker.

This poor man was buried by his widow (an Irish woman) in a corner of his own farm, attended by several settlers of that and the neighbouring districts, who celebrated the funeral rites in a manner and with orgies suitable to the disposition and habits of the deceased, his widow, and themselves.

Hill was executed on the 16th, and his body dissected according to his sentence.

On the 17th the Mercury, an American brig, commanded by Mr. William Barnet, anchored in the cove from Falkland's islands. He had nothing on board for sale, but brought us the very welcome information of his having seen the officers of the Spanish ship Descuvierta at that place. Being in want of biscuit, he made application to the commodore Malaspina for a supply, proffering to settle the payment in any manner that he should choose to adopt; but the commodore, after sending him a greater quantity than he had required, assured him that he was sufficiently satisfied in having assisted a ship whose people, whether English or American, spoke the language of those gentlemen from whom himself and the officers of the ships under his command had received, while in New South Wales, such attention and hospitality. Mr. Barnet understood the Atrevida was in the neighbourhood, and that no loss or accident had happened in either ship since their departure from Port Jackson. The Mercury was bound to the north-west coast of America, and her master purposed quitting this port as soon as his people, who were all afflicted with that dreadful sea distemper the scurvy, should be sufficiently recovered.

The period of probation which had been allotted by the late governor to the services of William Stephenson (one of the people serving in the stores) expiring this month, his pardon was delivered to him accordingly. No one among the prisoners could be found more deserving of this clemency; his conduct had been uniformly that of a good man, and he had shown that he was trustworthy by never having forfeited the good opinion of the commissary under whom he was placed in the provision-store.

From the Hawkesbury were received accounts which corroborated the opinion that the settlers there merited the attacks which were from time to time made upon them by the natives. It was now said, that some of them had seized a native boy, and, after tying him hand and foot, had dragged him several times through a fire, or over a place covered with hot ashes, until his back was dreadfully scorched, and in that state threw him into the river, where they shot at and killed him. Such a report could not be heard without being followed by the closest examination, when it appeared that a boy had actually been shot when in the water, from a conviction of his having been detached as a spy upon the settlers from a large body of natives, and that he was returning to them with an account of their weakness, there being only one musket to be found among several farms. No person appearing to contradict this account, it was admitted as a truth; but many still considered it as a tale invented to cover the true circumstance, that a boy had been cruelly and wantonly murdered by them.

The presence of some person with authority was becoming absolutely necessary among those settlers, who, finding themselves freed from bondage, instantly conceived that they were above all restrictions; and, being without any internal regulations, irregularities of the worst kind might be expected to happen.

On the morning of the 25th a civil court was assembled, for the purpose of investigating an action brought by one Joyce (a convict lately emancipated) against Thomas Daveny, a free man and superintendant of convicts at Toongabbie, for an assault; when the defendant, availing himself of a mistake in his christian name, pleaded the misnomer. His plea being admitted, the business was for that time got over, and before another court could be assembled he had entered into a compromise with the plaintiff, and nothing more was heard of it.

In the evening of the same day the Surprise transport arrived from England, whence she sailed on the 2nd of last May, having on board sixty female and twenty-three male convicts, some stores and provisions, and three settlers for this colony.

Among the prisoners were, Messrs. Muir, Palmer, Skirving, and Margarot, four gentlemen lately convicted in Scotland of the crime of sedition, considered as a public offence, and transported for the same to this country.

We found also on board the Surprise a Mr. James Thompson, late surgeon of the Atlantic transport, but who now came in quality of assistant-surgeon to the settlement; and William Baker, formerly here a sergeant in the marine detachment, but now appointed a superintendant of convicts.

A guard of an ensign and twenty-one privates of the New South Wales corps were on board the transport. Six of these people were deserters from other regiments brought from the Savoy; one of them, Joseph Draper, we understood had been tried for mutiny (of an aggravated kind) at Quebec.

This mode of recruiting the regiment must have proved as disgusting to the officers as it was detrimental to the interests of the settlement. If the corps was raised for the purpose of protecting the civil establishment, and of bringing a counterpoise to the vices and crimes which might naturally be expected to exist among the convicts, it ought to have been carefully formed from the best characters; instead of which we now found a mutineer (a wretch who could deliberate with others, and consent himself to be the chosen instrument of the destruction of his sovereign's son) sent among us, to remain for life, perhaps, as a check upon sedition, now added to the catalogue of our other imported vices.

This ship touched only at Rio de Janeiro, between which port and the south-west cape of this country the winds which they met with very much favoured, in the idea of Mr. Campbell the master, the opinion of a passage being readily made to the Cape of Good Hope, or to India, round by Van Dieman's Land.

Among other articles of information now received, we learned that Governor Hunter, with the Reliance and Supply, two ships intended to be employed in procuring cattle for the colony, might be expected to arrive in about three months. The governor was to bring out with him a patent for establishing a court of criminal judicature at Norfolk Island.

The two natives in England were said to be in health, and anxious for the governor's departure, as they were to accompany him. They had made but little improvement in our language.

The Surprise anchoring in the cove after dark, she saluted at sunrise the following morning with fifteen guns.

A theft was committed in the course of the month in one of the out-houses belonging to Government House, used as a regimental storeroom; the articles stolen were fifteen shirts and seventeen pair of shoes. In searching among the rocks and bushes for this property, three white and two check shirts, one pair of trousers, and one pair of stockings, were found; but so damaged by the weather as to be entirely useless. These must have been planted (to use the thiefs phrase) a considerable time; for every mark or trace which could lead to a discovery of the owner was entirely effaced.

The storeships being cleared of their cargoes, a survey was made upon such part of them as was damaged, which was found to be very considerable. A serving of slops was immediately issued to the male and female convicts; the men receiving each one jacket, one waistcoat, one shirt, one hat, and one pair of breeches; the women one petticoat, one shift, one pair of stockings, one cap, one neck-handkerchief, one hat, and one jacket made of raven duck. A distinction was made in the articles of the slops served to watchmen and overseers, each receiving one coat instead of a jacket, one pair of duck trousers instead of a pair of breeches, and one pair of shoes.

On the 21st died an industrious good young man, Joseph Webb, a settler at the district named Liberty Plains. He had been working in his ground, and suddenly fell down in an apoplectic fit. We have seen that another settler was murdered, and two male convicts were executed. Burn had been an unfortunate man; he had lost one of his eyes, when, as a convict, he was employed in splitting paling for government; his farm had never succeeded; himself and his wife were too fond of spirituous liquors to be very industrious; and he was at last forced out of the world in a state and in a manner shocking to human nature.

November.] Since our establishment in this harbour but few accidents had happened to boats. On the 1st of this month, however, the longboat of the Surprise, though steered by one of the people belonging to the settlement, was overset on her passage from the cove to Parramatta, in a squall of wind she met with off Goat Island, with a number of convicts and stores on board. Fortunately, no other loss followed than that occasioned by the drowning of one very fine female goat, the property of Baker the superintendant.

On the following day died Mr. Thomas Freeman, the deputy-commissary of stores and provisions employed at Parramatta. He was in his fifty-third year, and in this country ended a life the greater part of which had been actively and usefully employed in the king's service. His remains were interred in the burial-ground at Parramatta, and were attended by the gentlemen of the civil department residing in that township.

On the morning of the 9th the ships Resolution and Salamander left the cove, purposing to sail on their fishing voyage; soon after which, it being discovered that three convicts, Mary Morgan and John Randall and his wife, were missing, a boat was sent down the harbour to search the Resolution, on board of which ship it was said they were concealed. No person being found, the boat returned for further orders, leaving a sergeant and four men on board; but before she could return, Mr. Locke the master, after forcing the party out of his ship, got under way and stood out to sea. Mr. Irish, the master of the Salamander, did not accompany him; but came up to the town, to testify to the lieutenant-governor his uneasiness at its being supposed that he could be capable of taking any person improperly from the colony.

On the day following it appeared that several persons were missing, and two convicts in the night swam off to the Salamander, one of whom was supposed to have been drowned, but was afterwards found concealed in her hold and sent on shore. The Resolution during this time was seen hovering about the coast, either waiting for her companion, or to pick up a boat with the runaways. On the 13th, the Salamander got under way, with a southerly wind; but it falling calm when the ship was between the Heads, she drifted, and was set with the ebb tide so near the north head of the harbour as to be obliged to anchor suddenly in eighteen fathoms water. When anchored they got a kedge-anchor out, and began to heave; but the surf on the head and the swell from the sea were so great, occasioned by the late southerly winds, that in heaving the cable parted. Fortunately the stream-hawser hung her; and a breeze from the northward springing up, she was brought into the harbour with the loss of an anchor. This loss being repaired by her getting another from the Surprise, she was enabled to sail finally on the 15th.

The impropriety of the conduct of the Resolution's master was so glaring, that the lieutenant-governor caused some depositions to be taken respecting it, which he purposed transmitting to the navy-board. This man had been permitted to ship as many persons from the settlement as he stated to be necessary to complete his ship's company; notwithstanding which, there was not any doubt of his having received on board, without any permission, to the number of twelve or thirteen convicts whose terms of transportation had not been served. No difficulty had ever been found by any master of a ship, who would make the proper application, in obtaining any number of hands that he might be in want of, but to take clandestinely from the settlement the useful servants of the public was ungrateful and unpardonable. It was to be hoped that government, if the facts could be substantiated against him, would make his person a severe example to other masters of ships coming to this port.

On the 23rd, after an absence of eight weeks and two days, the Daedalus returned from Norfolk Island. Ten days of this time were passed in going thither, and sixteen in returning; the intermediate time was consumed in landing one, and receiving on board the other detachment, with their baggage.

Several persons, whose sentences of transportation had expired, and who preferred residing in New South Wales, together with ten of the marine settlers, who had given up their grounds in consequence of the late disappointment which they experienced in respect of their corn bills, and had entered into the New South Wales corps, arrived in this ship.

We understood that Phillip Island had been found to answer extremely well for the purpose of breeding stock. Some hogs which were allowed to be placed there in August 1793, the property of an individual, had increased so prodigiously, as to render the raising hogs there on account of government an object with the lieutenant-governor.

The Daedalus immediately began preparations for her departure for England; and Lieutenant-governor Grose signified his intention of quitting the settlement by that opportunity.

The lieutenant-governor having set apart for each of the gentlemen who came from Scotland in the Surprise a brick hut, in a row on the east side of the cove, they took possession of their new habitations, and soon declared that they found sufficient reason for thinking their situations 'on the bleak and desolate shores of New Holland' not quite so terrible as in England they had been taught to expect.

The Surprise was discharged this month from government employ, and Mr. Campbell began to prepare for making his passage to Bengal (whither he was bound) by the south cape of this country. Of the female prisoners who came out in this ship one was buried on the 21st; she had lain in of a dead child, and died shortly after of a milk fever. Her husband, a free man, came out with her to settle in the country.

Reaping our wheat-harvest commenced this month.

December.] The people of the Mercury being perfectly recovered from the disorder which afflicted them when they arrived, that vessel sailed on the 7th of December for the north-west coast of America. The master had permission to ship five persons belonging to the colony, and on the day of his sailing several others were missing from the labouring gangs, and were supposed to have made their escape in her; but on the following morning they were all at their respective labours, not having been able to get on board.

Some of the seamen belonging to this vessel, preferring the pleasures they met with in the society of the females and the free circulation of spirituous liquors which they found on shore, to accompanying Mr. Barnet to the north-west coast of America, had left his vessel some days previous to her sailing. Application being made to the lieutenant-governor, several orders were given out calculated to induce them to return to their duty, informing them, that if they remained behind they would be certainly sent to hard labour, and the persons who had harboured them severely punished. But our settlements had now become so extensive, that orders did not so readily find their way to the settlers, as runaways and vagrants, who never failed of finding employment among them, particularly among those at the river.

On the 8th a farm of twenty-five acres of ground in the district of Concord was sold by public auction for thirteen pounds. Four acres were planted with Indian corn, and half an acre with potatoes; there was beside a tolerable hut on the premises. This farm was the property of Samuel Crane, a soldier, who, too industriously for himself, working on it on the Sunday preceding his death, received a hurt from a tree which fell upon him, and proved fatal.

Every preparation for accommodating the lieutenant-governor and his family being completed on board the Daedalus, he embarked in the evening of the 15th. Previous to his departure, such convicts as were at that time confined in the cells, or who were under orders for punishment, were released; several grants of lands were signed, conveying chiefly small allotments of twenty-five acres each to such soldiers of the regiment as were desirous of, and made application for that favour; and some leases of town lots were given.

With the lieutenant-governor went Mr. White, the principal surgeon of the colony; Mr. Bain, the chaplain, in whose absence the Rev. Mr. Marsden was to do his duty; Mr. Laing, assistant-surgeon of the settlement, and mate of the New South Wales corps; three soldiers; two women, and nine men. The master of the transport had permission to ship twelve men and two women, whose sentences of transportation had expired.

The Surprise sailed on the 17th. Mr. Campbell, being in want of hands, was allowed to receive on board sixteen men. He had shipped a greater number; but some, regardless of their own situation, and of the effect such an act might have on others, had been detected in the act of robbing the ship, and were turned on shore.

Mr. Campbell at his departure expressed his determination of trying his passage to Bengal by the south cape of this country. The route of the Daedalus was round the southern extremity of New Zealand.

The lieutenant-governor took with him all the documents which were necessary to lay before government to explain the state of the different settlements under his command; such as the commissary's accounts, returns of stock, remains of provisions, etc, etc.; vouchers, in fact, of that true spirit of liberality which had marked the whole of his administration of the public affairs of this settlement.

Our society was much weakened by this departure of our friends; they carried with them, however, letters to our connexions, and our earnest wishes for their speedy, pleasant, and safe passage to England.

The number of small boats at this time in the settlement was considerable, although wretchedly put together. Two of them were stolen during the month by several Irish prisoners, accompanied by some who came out in the Surprise. In it they went down to the Southhead, whence they took what arms they could find, and made off to sea. In a very few days they were all brought in from the adjacent bays, and punished for their rashness and folly. No example seemed to deter these people from thinking it practicable to escape from the colony; the ill success and punishment which had befallen others affected not them, till woeful experience made it their own; and then they only regretted their ill fortune, never attributing the failure to their own ignorance and temerity.

In the morning of Wednesday the 24th the signal was made at the South Head for a vessel (which they had seen the day before). She came in about three o'clock, and proved to be the Experiment, a snow from Bengal, laden with spirits, sugar, piece-goods, and a few casks of provisions; the speculation being suggested by Mr. Beyer, the agent for the Sugar Cane and Boddingtons. Those ships had arrived safely at Bengal, and had sailed thence for England.

The Experiment had had a passage of three months from Calcutta, one month of which she had passed since she saw the southern extremity of this country.

We learned from Mr. E. McClellan, the master, that a large ship named the Neptune had been freighted with cattle, etc in pursuance of the contract entered into with Mr. Bampton, and had sailed from Bombay in July last, but was unfortunately lost in the river by sailing against the monsoon. When Mr. Bampton might be expected was uncertain.

The direction of the colony during the absence of the governor and lieutenant-governor devolving upon the officer highest in rank then on service in the colony, Captain William Paterson, of the New South Wales corps, on Christmas Day took the oaths prescribed by his Majesty's letters patent for the person who should so take upon him the government of the settlement. This officer, expecting every day the arrival of Governor Hunter, made no alteration in the mode of carrying on the different duties of the settlement now entrusted to his care and guidance.

At the latter end of the month a general muster was ordered of all the male convicts, together with the persons who had served their several terms of transportation, as well those residing at Sydney and Parramatta, as those on the banks of the river Hawkesbury. The following ration was also ordered, the maize being nearly expended, viz.

To Civil, Military, Free People, and Free Settlers 8 lbs of flour, 7 lbs of beef, or 4 lbs of pork, 3 pints of peas, 6 oz of sugar.

To Male Convicts 4 lbs of flour 7 lbs of beef, or 4 lbs of pork, 3 pints of peas, 6 ozs of sugar, and 3 pints of rice.

Women and children were to receive the usual proportion, and a certain quantity of slops was directed to be issued to the male and female convicts who came out in the Surprise transport, they being very much in want of clothing.

A jail gang was also ordered to be established at Toongabbie, for the employment and punishment of all bad and suspicious characters.

Wheat was this month directed to be purchased from the settlers at ten shillings per bushel. Much of that grain was found to have been blighted this season. The ground about Toongabbie was pronounced to be worn out, the produce of the last harvest not averaging more than six or seven bushels an acre, though at first it was computed at seventeen. The Northern farms had also failed through a blight.

Our loss by death in the year 1794 was, two settlers; four soldiers; one soldier's wife; thirty-two male convicts; ten female convicts; and ten children; making a total of fifty-nine persons.



CHAPTER XXVIII



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* 5481/2 Individuals at and about Sydney 6183/4 Total 27211/4

[* 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.



CHAPTER XXIX



Ration A Criminal and a Civil Court held Circumstances 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 ships sail Another arrival from England Military promotions Colonial regulations The Providence, Supply, and Young William sail The Sovereign storeship 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 Saturday the 11th of the month the convicts received the following ration:

Indian corn 12 pounds (unground); Rice 5 ditto; Dholl 3 pints; Sugar 11/2 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 quantity 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 assembled 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 Saturday 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 shillings. 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 assistance 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) assisted by their new associates. 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 ship 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 ships Reliance and Supply, which ships 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 passage from the Brazil coast, and was driven past this harbour as far to the northward as Port Stephens, in which she anchored. 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 passed 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 principally 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 shore from the mouth of the yawning deep, and entitled to their protection. They told us a ridiculous story, that the natives appeared to worship them, often assuring 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 pronounced 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 ship nor the Endeavour had much communication with the shore. 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 circumstance most acutely felt) a very large barn and threshing-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 threshing-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 passage 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 quantity 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 quantity 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 ship 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 passage from Rio de Janeiro was long (fourteen weeks) and very rough, until the ships 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 storeship 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 ships now arrived we had only gained a few barrels of provisions salted at Rio de Janeiro; a town clock; the principal parts of a large wind-mill; two officers of the New South Wales corps; Mr. S. Leeds an assistant-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 pass 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 ship 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 ships 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 assistant 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 storeship whose unavoidable delay in her sailing we had regretted on the arrival of the governor without her, anchored safe in the cove from England, after a short passage of four months and nine days, with a cargo of provisions only. She sailed from Spithead in company with the Sovereign, another storeship, on the 25th of May, taking her route by the way of Rio de Janeiro, where she anchored 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 shipped great quantities of water; and, being very deeply laden, the vessel was considerably strained.

By letters received from this ship 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 quantity 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.