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 assistance 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 assistance 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.]

[** Such as the marine settlers, those at Liberty Plains, and others who never had been prisoners.]

As much inconvenience also was felt, and the end for which government gave up the services of these convicts to individuals liable to be defeated by their not residing at their respective farms, the settlers were directed as much as possible to prevent their servants from having any intercourse, particularly during the night, with the towns in their neighbourhood; as most of the robberies which were committed were not unjustly laid to their account.

It appeared likewise by this muster, that one hundred and seventy-nine people subsisted themselves independent of the public stores, and resided in this town. To many of these, as well as to the servants of settlers, were to be attributed the offences that were daily heard of, they were the greatest nuisances we had to complain of; and there was not a doubt that they were concerned about this time in rolling two casks of meat from a pile at the store in a very hard storm of wind and rain. Enough to fill a cask was found concealed in different holes the following morning.

An indulgence had been allowed to some of the military and others, which was now found to have produced an evil. Having been permitted to build themselves huts on each side of and near the stream of water which supplied the town of Sydney, they had, for the convenience of procuring water, opened the paling, and made paths from each hut; by which, in rainy weather, a great quantity of filth ran into the stream, polluting the water of which every one drank. It therefore became an object of police; and the governor prohibited removing the paling, or keeping hogs in the neighbourhood of the stream, under penalty to the offender that his house should be pulled down.

On the 13th, the Providence sailed for Nootka Sound. She was followed by the Supply, which sailed on the 16th for Norfolk Island, having on board three officers of the New South Wales corps, and a detachment of the regiment to relieve those now on duty there. On the 29th the Young William, having been expeditiously cleared of her cargo, sailed for Canton.

Clearing the store-ship, which was completed on the 19th, and stowing in the public store the provisions she brought out, was the principal labour of the month. Every effort was made to collect together a sufficient number of working people to get in the ensuing harvest; and the muster and regulation respecting the servants fortunately produced some. The bricklayer and his gang were employed in repairing the column at the South Head; to do which, for want of bricks at the kiln, the little hut built formerly for Bennillong, being altogether forsaken by the natives, and tumbling down, the bricks of it were removed to the South Head. A person having undertaken to collect shells and burn them into lime, a quantity of that article was sent down; and the column, being finished with a thick coat of plaster, and whitened, was not only better guarded against the weather, but became a more conspicuous object at sea than it ever had been before.

November.] On the 5th of November, the Sovereign store-ship arrived from England; her cargo a welcome one, being provisions. Like the Young William, she touched at Rio de Janeiro, and like her also had met with very bad weather after she had left that port until her arrival; from making the south cape of this country to her anchoring she had a passage of three weeks. In this ship arrived Mr. Thomas Hibbins, the deputy judge-advocate for Norfolk Island; but unfortunately without the patent under the great seal for holding the court. One settler also arrived, a Mr. Kennedy and his family (a sister and three nieces); and Mr. Joseph Gerald, a prisoner, whose present situation afforded another melancholy proof of how little profit and honor were the endowments of nature and education to him who perverted them. In this gentleman we saw, that not even elegant manners (evidently caught from good company), great abilities, and a happy mode of placing them in the best point of view, the gifts of nature matured by education, could (because he misapplied them) save him from landing an exile, to call him by no worse a name, on a barbarous shore, where the few who were civilized must pity, while they admired him. He arrived in a very weak and impaired state of health. We learned that two other ships with convicts, the Marquis Cornwallis and the Maria, might be expected to arrive in the course of this summer.

On the 7th, a criminal court was assembled, when the following persons were tried; viz. Samuel Chinnery (a black) servant to Mr. Arndell*, the assistant surgeon, for robbing that gentleman; but he was acquitted. —— Smith and Abraham Whitehouse, for breaking into the dwelling-house of William Potter, a settler at Prospect Hill, and after cruelly treating the only person in the house, William Thorn, a servant) stripping it of all the moveables they could find, and killing and taking away some valuable stock; these were found guilty, and condemned to die: and two settlers, and six convicts, for an assault on one Marianne Wilkinson (attended with like circumstances of infamy as that on Mary Hartley in April last) of which three were found guilty, and sentenced, —— Merchant, alias Jones, the principal, to receive one thousand lashes; the others, Ladley and Everitt, eight hundred each.

[* This gentleman had, on the arrival of Mr. Leeds, been permitted to retire from the civil duties of the colony with a salary of fifty pounds per annum.]

These unmanly attacks of several men on a single woman had frequently happened, and had happened to some females who, through shame concealed the circumstance. To such a height indeed was this dissolute and abandoned practice carried, that it had obtained a cant name; and the poor unfortunate objects of this brutality were distinguished by a title expressive of the insults they had received.

On the 16th the two prisoners Smith and Whitehouse were led out to execution. Smith suffered, after warning the crowd which attended him to guard against breaking the Sabbath. Whitehouse, being evidently the tool of Smith, and a much younger man, was pardoned by the governor. His excellency, after the execution, expressed in public orders, his hope that neither the example he had that day found himself compelled to make of one offender, nor the lenity which he had shown to another, would be without their effect: it would always be more grateful to him to spare than to punish; but he felt it necessary on that occasion to declare, that if neither the justice which had been done, nor the mercy which had been shown, tended to decrease the perpetration of offences, it was his determination in future to put in execution whatever sentence should be pronounced on offenders by the court of criminal judicature.

A small printing-press, which had been brought into the settlement by Mr. Phillip, and had remained from that time unemployed, was now found very useful; a very decent young man, one George Hughes, of some abilities in the printing line, having been found equal to conducting the whole business of the press. All orders were now printed, and a number thrown off sufficient to ensure a more general publication of them than had hitherto been accomplished.

Some time after the arrival of the Sovereign the full allowance of salt meat was issued, and the hours of public labour regulated, more to the advantage of government than had for a considerable time, owing to the shortness of the ration, been the case. Instead of completing in a few hours the whole labour which was required of a man for the day, the convicts were now to work the whole day, with the intermission of two hours and a half of rest. Many advantages were gained by this regulation; among which not the least was, the diminution of idle time which the prisoners before had, and which, emphatically terming their own time, they applied as they chose, some industriously, but by far the greater part in improper pursuits, as gaming, drinking, and stealing.

The full ration of flour was issued to the Military, on account of the 'hard duty which had lately fallen upon the regiment;' but they were informed, that the quantity of flour in the public store would not admit of their receiving such allowance for any length of time. Four pounds were issued to the prisoners, and some other grain given to them to make up the difference.

On the 20th his Majesty's ship Supply returned from Norfolk Island, having been absent four weeks and four days. She had a long passage back of seventeen days. When Mr. Kent left the island, the lieutenant-governor was dangerously ill with the gout in his stomach. We understood that cultivation was nearly at a stand there. The grounds were so over-run with two great enemies to agriculture, rats, and a pernicious weed called cow-itch*, that the settlers despaired of ever being able to get rid of either.

[* The Pruriens, a species of the Dolichos.]

A circumstance happened this month not less extraordinary and unexpected than the discovery of the four convicts at Port Stephens.

The contests which had lately taken place very frequently in this town, and the neighbourhood of it, among the natives, had been attended by many of those people who inhabited the woods, and came from a great distance inland. Some of the prisoners gathering from time to time rumours and imperfect accounts of the existence of the cattle lost in 1788, two of them, who were employed by some officers in shooting, resolved on ascertaining the truth of these reports, and trying by different excursions to discover the place of their retreat. On their return from the first outset they made, which was subsequent to the governor's arrival, they reported, that they had seen them. Being, however, at that moment too much engaged in perfecting the civil regulations he had in view for the settlement, the governor could not himself go to that part of the country where they were said to have been found; but he detached Henry Hacking, a man on whom he could depend. His report was so satisfactory, that on the 18th the governor set off from Parramatta, attended by a small party, when after travelling two days, in a direction SSW from the settlement at Prospect Hill, he crossed the river named by Mr. Phillip the Nepean; and, to his great surprise and satisfaction, fell in with a very fine herd of cattle, upwards of forty in number, grazing in a pleasant and apparently fertile pasturage. The day being far advanced when he saw them, he rested for the night in their neighbourhood, hoping in the morning to be gratified with a sight of the whole herd. A doubt had been started of their being cattle produced from what we had brought into the country from the Cape; and it was suggested that they might be of longer standing. The governor thought this a circumstance worth determining, and directed the attendants who were with him (Hacking and the two men who had first found them) to endeavour in the morning to get near enough to kill a calf. This they were not able to effect; for, while lying in wait for the whole herd to pass (which now consisted of upwards of sixty young and old) they were furiously set upon by a bull, which brought up the rear, and which in their own defence they were compelled to kill. This however answered the purpose better perhaps than a calf might have done; for he had all the marks of the Cape cattle when full grown, such as wide-spreading horns, a moderate rising or hump between his shoulders, and a short thin tail. Being at this time seven or eight and thirty miles from Parramatta, a very small quantity of the meat only could be sent in; the remainder was left to the crows and dogs of the woods, much to the regret of the governor and his party*, who considered that the prisoners, particularly the sick at the hospital, had not lately received any meat either salt or fresh.

[* Captain Waterhouse and Mr. Bass (surgeon) of the Reliance, and the writer of this Narrative.]

The country where they were found grazing was remarkably pleasant to the eye; every where the foot trod on thick and luxuriant grass; the trees were thinly scattered, and free from underwood, except in particular spots; several beautiful flats presented large ponds, covered with ducks and the black swan, the margins of which were fringed with shrubs of the most delightful tints, and the ground rose from these levels into hills of easy ascent.

The question how these cattle came hither appeared easy of solution. The few that were lost in 1788, two bulls and five cows, travelled without interruption in a western direction until they came to the banks of the Nepean. Arrived there, and finding the crossing as easy as when the governor forded it, they came at once into a well-watered country, and amply stored with grass. From this place why should they move? They found themselves in possession of a country equal to their support, and in which they remained undisturbed. We had not yet travelled quite so far westward; and but few natives were to be found thereabouts; they were likely therefore to remain for years unmolested, and securely to propagate their species.

It was a pleasing circumstance to have in the woods of New Holland a thriving herd of wild cattle. Many proposals were made to bring them into the settlement; but in the day of want, if these should be sacrificed, in what better condition would the colony be for having possessed a herd of cattle in the woods?—a herd which, if suffered to remain undisturbed for some years, would, like the cattle of South America, always prove a market sufficient for the inhabitants of the country; and, perhaps, not only for their own consumption, but for exportation. The governor saw it in this light, and determined to guard, as much as was in his power, against any attempts to destroy them.

On his return he found some very fine ground at the back of Prospect Hill. The weather during this excursion was so intensely hot, that one day as the party passed through a part of the country which was on fire, a terrier dog died by the way.

Discharging the store-ship, some part of the cargo of which appeared to be injured by the weather she had met with, formed the principal labour of the month. On account of the small number of working men which could be got together, the governor required two able men to be sent in for this purpose from each farm having ten, to be returned as soon as the provisions were stowed in the public store.

It having been the practice for some time past to shoot such hogs (pursuant to an order which their destructive qualities had rendered necessary in the lieutenant-governor's time) as were found trespassing in gardens or cultivated grounds, and the loss of the animals being greatly felt by the owners, as well as detrimental to the increase of that kind of stock, the governor directed, that instead of firing at them when found trespassing, they should be taken to the provost-marshal, by whom (if the damage done, which was to be ascertained before a magistrate, was not paid for within twenty-four hours) they were to be delivered to the commissary as public property, and the damages paid as far as the value of the animal would admit.

A combination appearing among the labouring people to raise the price of reaping for a day, the governor, being as desirous to encourage industry as to check every attempt at imposition, thought it necessary, on comparing our's with the price usually paid in England, to direct that ten shillings, and no more, should be demanded of, or given by any settler, under pain of losing the assistance of government, for reaping an acre of wheat. It was much feared that this order would be but little attended to; and that some means would be devised on both sides to evade the letter of it.

We heard nothing of the natives at the river; all was quiet there. About this settlement their attention had been for some time engrossed by Bennillong, who arrived with the governor. On his first appearance, he conducted himself with a polished familiarity toward his sisters and other relations; but to his acquaintance he was distant, and quite the man of consequence. He declared, in a tone and with an air that seemed to expect compliance, that he should no longer suffer them to fight and cut each other's throats, as they had done; that he should introduce peace among them, and make them love each other. He expressed his wish that when they visited him at Government-house they would contrive to be somewhat more cleanly in their persons, and less coarse in their manners; and he seemed absolutely offended at some little indelicacies which he observed in his sister Car-rang-ar-ang, who came in such haste from Botany Bay, with a little nephew on her back, to visit him, that she left all her habiliments behind her.

Bennillong had certainly not been an inattentive observer of the manners of the people among whom he had lived; he conducted himself with the greatest propriety at table, particularly in the observance of those attentions which are chiefly requisite in the presence of women. His dress appeared to be an object of no small concern with him; and every one who knew him before he left the country, and who saw him now, pronounced without hesitation that Bennillong had not any desire to renounce the habits and comforts of the civilized life which he appeared so readily and so successfully to adopt.

His inquiries were directed, immediately on his arrival, after his wife Go-roo-bar-roo-bool-lo; and her he found with Caruey. On producing a very fashionable rose-coloured petticoat and jacket made of a coarse stuff, accompanied with a gypsy bonnet of the same colour, she deserted her lover, and followed her former husband. In a few days however, to the surprise of every one, we saw the lady walking unencumbered with clothing of any kind, and Bennillong was missing. Caruey was sought for, and we heard that he had been severely beaten by Bennillong at Rose Bay, who retained so much of our customs, that he made use of his fists instead of the weapons of his country, to the great annoyance of Caruey, who would have preferred meeting his rival fairly in the field armed with the spear and the club. Caruey being much the younger man, the lady, every inch a woman, followed her inclination, and Bennillong was compelled to yield her without any further opposition. He seemed to have been satisfied with the beating he had given Caruey, and hinted, that resting for the present without a wife, he should look about him, and at some future period make a better choice.

His absences from the governor's house now became frequent, and little attended to. When he went out he usually left his clothes behind, resuming them carefully on his return before he made his visit to the governor.

During this month one man and a woman, attempting to cross one of the creeks at the Hawkesbury by a tree which had been thrown over, fell in, and were drowned; and one man had died there of the bite of a snake. Three male convicts* died at Sydney.

[* One of them, William Locker, from the extraordinary deformity of his left leg, had been offered L100 for it in England.]

December.] The court of civil judicature had hitherto been but rarely assembled. The few debts which had been contracted were not of sufficient moment, and had seldom remained long enough in doubt, to require an action to recover them. But now the possibility having been discovered of acquiring in this country a property worth preserving, it was probable, when the talents and disposition of the men of landed property (the settlers) in New South Wales were considered, that many disputes would occur among them which the civil court alone could decide.

A court of civil judicature was assembled this month. Some debts were sworn to, and writs granted. An action for an assault was also tried. About the latter end of the month of October, a large sow, the property of Mr. J. Boston, having trespassed with two or three other hogs on a close belonging to an officer of the New South Wales corps, was shot by a soldier of the regiment (the officer's servant). The owner, Mr. Boston, repairing immediately to the spot, on seeing the sow, then near farrowing, lying dead on the ground, made use of some intemperate expressions; which being uttered in the hearing of two of the officers and some other soldiers of the corps, the officers were said by Mr. Boston to have encouraged and urged the soldiers to beat him. Mr. Boston had been struck, and, as it appeared on the trial, with a musket, which at the time was loaded. Mr. Boston laid his damage at five hundred pounds. The court however, after several days very attentive examination of the business, gave him a verdict against two of the defendants, with twenty shillings damages from each. One of these defendants, a soldier, was advised to appeal from the decision of the court to the governor, who, after hearing the appeal, confirmed the verdict of the civil court.

On the 6th the Francis schooner sailed for Norfolk Island. The governor, being anxious to learn the situation of the lieutenant-governor, sent her merely with a letter, that if unhappily any accident should have happened to him, a proper person might be sent in the Reliance to command the settlement, until a successor could arrive from England. Having nothing to deliver or receive that could detain him, the master determined to try in what time his vessel could run thither and back again.

The harvest was begun in this month. The Cape wheat (a bearded grain differing much from the English) was found universally to have failed. An officer who had sown seven acres with this seed at a farm in the district of Petersham Hill, on cutting it down, found it was not worth the reaping. This was owing to a blight; but every where the Cape wheat was pronounced not worth the labour of sowing.

A quantity of useful timber having been for some time past indiscriminately cut down upon the banks of the River Hawkesbury, and the creeks running from it, which had been wasted or applied to purposes for which timber of less value might have answered, the governor, among other colonial regulations, thought it necessary to direct, that no timber whatever should be cut down on any ground which was not marked out on either the banks or creeks of that river: and, in order to preserve as much as possible such timber as might be of use either for building or for naval purposes, he ordered the king's mark to be immediately put on all such timber, after which any persons offending against the order were to be prosecuted. This order extended only to grounds not granted to individuals, there being a clause in all grants from the crown, expressly reserving, under pain of forfeiture, for the use thereof, 'such timber as might be growing or to grow hereafter upon the land so granted, which should be deemed fit for naval purposes.'

It was feared, that the certainty of the existence of our cattle to the southward being incontrovertibly established, some of our vagabonds might be tempted to find them out, and satisfy their hunger on them from time to time, as they might find opportunity. We were therefore not surprised to hear that two of them had been killed. A very strict inquiry into the report, however, convinced us that it had been raised only for the purpose of trying how such a circumstance would be regarded. The governor thought it necessary therefore to state in public orders, that,

Having heard it reported, that some person or persons, who had been permitted to carry arms for the protection of themselves and property, had lately employed that indulgence in an attempt to destroy the cattle belonging to government, which were at large in the woods; and as the preservation of that stock was of the utmost importance to the colony at large, he declared, that if it should be discovered that any person whatever should use any measure to destroy or otherwise annoy them, they would be prosecuted with the utmost severity of the law.

A reward was also held out to any person giving information, and the order was made as public as possible that no one might plead ignorance of it.

The harvest having commenced, the governor on the 22nd signified to the settlers, that

although it had hitherto been the intention and the practice of government to give them every possible encouragement, as well as others who had employed themselves in growing corn, by taking off their hands all their surplus grain at such prices as had from time to time been thought fair and reasonable, it was not, however, to be expected, as the colony advanced in the means of supplying itself with bread, that such heavy expences could be continued. He therefore recommended to them to consider what reduction in the price of wheat and Indian corn they could at present submit to, as their offers in that respect would determine him how far it might be necessary in future to cultivate on the part of government, instead of taking or purchasing a quantity from individuals at so great a price.

This proposal, he thought, could not be considered otherwise than as fair and reasonable, when they recollected that the means by which individuals had so far improved their farms had arisen from the very liberal manner in which government had given up the labour of so great a number of its own servants, to assist the industry of others. If this representation should not have the effect which he hoped and expected, by a reduction of the present high price of grain, he thought it his duty to propose, that those who were assisted with servants from government, should at least undertake to furnish those servants with bread.

To those who had farms on the banks of the Hawkesbury he thought it necessary to observe, that, there not being any granaries in that district belonging to government, the expense of conveying their grain from thence to this part of the settlement rendered it absolutely necessary that they should lower their prices; otherwise they must be at that expence themselves, and bring their surplus corn to market either at Sydney or Parramatta, where government had stores where in to deposit it, and where only the commissary could be permitted to receive it.

A report from the river was current about this time, that the natives had assembled in a large body, and attacked a few settlers who had chosen farms low down the river, and without the reach of protection from the other settlers, stripping them of every article they could find in their huts. An armed party was directly sent out, who, coming up with them, killed four men and one woman, badly wounded a child, and took four men prisoners. It might have been supposed that these punishments, following the enormities so immediately, would have taught the natives to keep at a greater distance; but nothing seemed to deter them from prosecuting the revenge they had vowed against the settlers for the injuries they had received at their hands.

A savage of a darker hue, and full as far removed from civilisation, black Caesar, once more fled from honest labour to the woods, there to subsist by robbing the settlers. It was however reported, that he had done one meritorious action, killing Pe-mul-wy, who had just before wounded Collins (the native) so dangerously, that his recovery was a matter of very great doubt with the surgeons at our hospital, whose assistance Collins had requested as soon as he was brought into town by his friends. A barbed spear had been driven into his loins close by the vertebrae of the back, and was so completely fixed, that all the efforts of the surgeons to remove it with their instruments were ineffectual. Finding, after a day or two, that it could not be displaced by art, Collins left the hospital determined to trust to nature.* He was much esteemed by every white man who knew him, as well on account of his personal bravery, of which we had witnessed many distinguishing proofs, as on account of a gentleness of manners which strongly marked his disposition, and shaded off the harsher lines that his uncivilised life now and then forced into the fore-ground.

[* And he did not trust in vain. We saw him from time to time for several weeks walking about with the spear unmoved, even after suppuration had taken place; but at last heard that his wife, or one of his male friends, had fixed their teeth in the wood and drawn it out; after which he recovered, and was able again to go into the field. His wife War-re-weer showed by an uncommon attention her great attachment to him.]

On the 27th the Sovereign sailed for Bengal; and on the last day of the year the signal for a sail was made at the South Head, too late in the day for it to be known what or whence the vessel was.

The harvest formed the principal labour this month both public and private. At Sydney, another attempt being made to steal a cask of pork from the pile of provisions which stood before the storehouse, the whole was removed into one of the old marine barracks. The full ration of salt provisions being issued to every one, it was difficult to conceive what could be the inducement to these frequent and wanton attacks on the provisions, whenever necessity compelled the commissary to trust a quantity without the store. Perhaps, however, it was to gratify that strong, propensity to thieving, which could not suffer an opportunity of exercising their talents to pass, or to furnish them with means of indulging in the baneful vice of gaming.

At the Hawkesbury, in the beginning of the month, an extraordinary meteorological phenomenon occurred. Four farms on the creek named Ruse's Creek were totally cut up by a fall, not of hail or of snow, but of large flakes of ice. It was stated by the officer who had the command of the military there, Lieutenant Abbott, that the shower passed in a direction NW taking such farms as fell within its course. The effect was extraordinary; the wheat then standing was beaten down, the ears cut off, and the grain perfectly threshed out. Of the Indian corn the large thick stalks were broken, and the cobs found lying at the roots, A man who was too far distant from a house to enter it in time was glad to take shelter in the hollow of a tree. The sides of the trees which were opposed to its fury appeared as if large shot had been discharged against them, and the ground was covered with small twigs from the branches. On that part of the race-ground which it crossed, the stronger shrubs were all found cut to pieces, while the weaker, by yielding to the storm, were only beaten down. The two succeeding days were remarkably mild; notwithstanding which the ice remained on the ground nearly as large as when it fell. Some flakes of it were brought to Lieutenant Abbott on the second day, which measured from six to eight inches long, and at that time were two fingers at the least in thickness.

On this officer's representing to the governor the distress which the settlers had suffered whose farms had lain in the course of the shower such relief was given them as their situations required. Nothing of this kind had been felt either at Parramatta or at Sydney.

There died this month Mr. Barrow, a midshipman belonging to his Majesty's ship Supply. His death, which was rather sudden, was occasioned by an obstruction in the bowels, brought on by bathing when very much heated and full. He had attended divine service on the Sunday preceding his death, and heard Mr. Johnson preach on uncertainty of human life, little thinking how soon he was himself to prove the verity of the principal point of his discourse—'That death stole upon us like a thief in the night.'

Two male convicts died at Sydney. One of them, John Durham, had been for upwards of two years a venereal patient in the hospital; and died at last a wretched but exemplary spectacle to all who beheld him, or who knew his sufferings. There died, during the year 1795, one assistant to the surgeons; one sergeant of the New South Wales corps; two settlers; thirteen male convicts; seven female convicts and one child; and one male convict was executed. Making a total of twenty-six persons who lost their lives during the year.



CHAPTER XXX



The Arthur arrives from India Francis from Norfolk Island A playhouse opened Her Majesty's birthday kept Stills destroyed Ceres storeship arrives and Experiment from India Ship Otter from America Natives Harvest got in Deaths A hut demolished by the military A Transport arrives with prisoners from Ireland A criminal court held Caesar shot General court martial Otter takes away Mr. Muir Abigail from America arrives A forgery committed Works The Reliance Particulars respecting Mr. Bampton, and of the fate of Captain Hill and Mr. Carter A Schooner arrives from Duskey-Bay Crops bad Robberies committed Supply for Norfolk Island Natives Bennillong Cornwallis sails Gerald and Skirving die

1796.]

January] On the first of this month, the Arthur brig anchored in the cove from Calcutta. Mr. Barber, who was here in 1794 in the same vessel, had been induced by the success he then met with to pay us a second visit, with a cargo similar as to the nature of the articles, but of much larger value than that which he then sold. He had been thirteen weeks on his passage, and had heard nothing of the Britannia.

It appeared from the information he brought us, that the Cape of Good Hope might at that time be in the possession of the English. Trincomale had surrendered to our arms; but of Batavia he could only say, that a strong party in the French interest existed there.

The Surprise, Captain Campbell, had arrived at Bengal after a long passage of eight months from this port.

In the evening of the following day the colonial vessel returned from Norfolk Island, having been absent just four weeks. Lieutenant-governor King continued extremely ill.

In consequence of the order issued last month respecting a reduction in the price of wheat, the settlers, having consulted among themselves, deputed a certain number from the different districts to state to the governor the hardships they should be subjected to by a reduction in the price of grain, at least for that season. He therefore consented to purchase their present crops of wheat at ten shillings per bushel; but at the same time assured them, that a reduction would be made in the ensuing season, unless some unforeseen and unavoidable circumstances should occur to render it unnecessary.

The officers who held ground offered to give up two of the number of men the governor had allowed them, and to take two others off the provision-store, which proposal was directed to be carried into execution.

Some of the more decent class of prisoners, male and female, having some time since obtained permission to prepare a playhouse* at Sydney, it was opened on Saturday the 16th, under the management of John Sparrow, with the play of The Revenge and the entertainment of The Hotel. They had fitted up the house with more theatrical propriety than could have been expected, and their performance was far above contempt. Their motto was modest and well chosen—'We cannot command success, but will endeavour to deserve it.' Of their dresses the greater part was made by themselves; but we understood that some veteran articles from the York theatre were among the best that made their appearance.

[* The he building cost upwards of one hundred pounds. The names of the principal performers were, H. Green, J. Sparrow (the manager), William Fowkes, G. H. Hughes, William Chapman, and Mrs. Davis. Of the men, Green best deserved to be called an actor.]

At the licensing of this exhibition they were informed, that the slightest impropriety would be noticed, and a repetition punished by the banishment of their company to the other settlements; there was, however, more danger of improprieties being committed by some of the audience than by the players themselves. A seat in their gallery, which was by far the largest place in the house, as likely to be the most resorted to, was to be procured for one shilling. In the payment of this price for admission, one evil was observable, which in fact could not well be prevented; in lieu of a shilling, as much flour, or as much meat or spirits, as the manager would take for that sum, was often paid at the gallery door. It was feared that this, like gambling, would furnish another inducement to rob; and some of the worst of the convicts, ever on the watch for opportunities, looked on the playhouse as a certain harvest for them, not by picking the pockets of the audience of their purses or their watches, but by breaking into their houses while the whole family might be enjoying themselves in the gallery. This actually happened on the second night of their playing.

The 18th was observed as the day on which her Majesty's birth is celebrated in England.* The troops fired three volleys at noon, and at one o'clock the king's ships fired twenty-one guns each, in honour of the day.

[* The anniversary of her Majesty's birth might with greater propriety be kept in the colonies, particularly in New South Wales, on the 19th of May, the day on which it happened, than at any other time; the same reasons for observing it at a time distant from the king's not existing there. This is attended to in India.]

Among other objects of civil regulation which required the governor's attention was one to remedy an evil of great magnitude. Some individuals formed the strange design of making application to the governor for his licence to erect stills in different parts of the settlement. On inquiry it appeared, that for a considerable time past they had been in the practice of making and vending a spirit, the quality of which was of so destructive a nature, that the health of the settlement in general was much endangered.

A practice so iniquitous and ruinous, being not only a direct disobedience of his Majesty's commands, but destructive of the welfare of the colony in general, the governor in the most positive manner forbade all persons on any pretence whatsoever to distil spirituous liquors of any kind or quality, on pain of such steps being taken for their punishment as would effectually prevent a repetition of so dangerous an offence. The constables of the different districts, as well as all other persons whose duty it was to preserve order, were strictly enjoined to be extremely vigilant in discovering and giving information where and in whose possession any article or machine for the purpose of distilling spirits might then be, or should hereafter be erected in opposition to this notification of the governor's resolution. Information on this subject was to be given to the nearest magistrate, who was to send the earliest notice in his power to the judge-advocate at Sydney.

In pursuance of these directions several stills were found and destroyed, to the great regret of the owners, who from a bushel of wheat (worth at the public store ten shillings) distilled a gallon of a new and poisonous spirit, which they retailed directly from the still at five shillings per quart bottle, and sometimes more. This was not merely paid away for labour, as was pretended, but sold for the purposes of intoxication to whoever would bring ready money.

Little or no attention having been paid to the order issued in October last respecting removing the paling about the stream, the governor found it necessary to repeat it, and to declare in public orders, 'to every description of persons, that when an order was given by him, it was given to be obeyed.' This had become absolutely necessary, as there were some who, in open defiance of his directions, not only still opened the paling, but took with dirty vessels the water which they wanted above the tanks, thereby disturbing and polluting the whole stream below.

Several attempts had been made by the commissary to ascertain the number of arms in the possession of individuals; it being feared, that, instead of their being properly distributed among the settlers for their protection, many were to be found in the hands of persons who used them in shooting, or in committing depredations. It was once more attempted to discover their number, by directing all persons (the military excepted) who were in possession of arms to bring them to the commissary's office, where, after registering them, they were to receive certificates signed by him, of their being permitted to carry such arms.

Some few settlers, who valued their arms as necessary to their defence against the natives and against thieves, hastened to the office for their certificate; but of between two and three hundred stands of arms which belonged to the crown not fifty were accounted for.

The many robberies which were almost daily and nightly committed rendered it expedient that some steps should be taken to put a stop to an evil so destructive of the happiness and comfort of the industrious inhabitants. Caesar was still in the woods, with several other vagabonds, all of whom were reported, by people who saw them from time to time, to be armed; and as he had sent us word, that he neither would come in, nor suffer himself to be taken alive, it became necessary to secure him. Notice was therefore given, that whoever should secure and bring him in with his arms should receive as a reward five gallons of spirits. The settlers, and those people who were occasionally supplied with ammunition by the officers, were informed, that if they should be hereafter discovered to have so abused the confidence placed in them, as to supply those common plunderers with any part of this ammunition, they would be deemed accomplices in the robberies committed by them, and steps would be taken to bring them to punishment as accessories.

To relieve the mind from the contemplation of circumstances so irksome to humanity, on the 23rd the Ceres store-ship arrived from England. It was impossible that a ship could ever reach this distant part of his Majesty's dominions, from England, or from any other part of the world, without bringing a change to our ideas, and a variety to our amusements. The introduction of a stranger among us had ever been an object of some moment; for every civility was considered to be due to him who had left the civilized world to visit us. The personal interest he might have in the visit we for a while forgot; and from our solicitude to hear news he was invited to our houses and treated at our tables. If he afterwards found himself neglected, it was not to be wondered at; his intelligence was exhausted, and he had sunk into the mere tradesman.

This ship, whose master's name was Hedley, had on board stores and provisions for the settlement. She sailed from England on the 5th of August last; took the route of most other ships which had preceded her, anchoring at Rio de Janeiro on the 18th of October, whence she sailed on the 22nd of the same month, and made Van Dieman's Land on the 9th instant, her passage occupying something more than five months.

We found that a ship (the Marquis Cornwallis) had sailed for Cork to take in her convicts three weeks before the Ceres left England; and that it was reported at Rio de Janeiro, that the Cape of Good Hope was in our possession.

The Ceres, touching at the island of Amsterdam in her way hither, took off four men, two French and two English, who had lived there three years, having been left from a brig (the Emilia), which was taken on to China by the Lion man of war. One of the Frenchmen, M. Perron, apparently deserved a better kind of society than his companions supplied. He had kept an accurate and neatly-written journal of his proceedings, with some well-drawn views of the spot to which he was so long confined. It appeared that they had, in the hope of their own or some other vessel arriving to take them off, collected and cured several thousands of seal-skins, which, however, they were compelled to abandon. M. Perron had subsisted for the last eighteen months on the flesh of seals.

On the day following this arrival the signal was again made; and before noon the snow Experiment, commanded by Mr. Edward McClellan, who was here in the same vessel in the year before last, from Bengal, and the ship Otter, Mr. Ebenezer Dorr master, from Boston in North America, anchored in the cove.

Mr. McClellan had on board a large investment of India goods, muslins, calicoes, chintzes, soap, sugar, spirits, and a variety of small articles, apparently the sweepings of a Bengal bazar; the sale of which investment he expected would produce ten or twelve thousand pounds.

The American, either finding the market overstocked, or having had some other motive for touching here, declared he had nothing for sale; but that he could, as a favour, spare two hogsheads of Jamaica rum, three pipes of Madeira, sixty-eight quarter casks of Lisbon wine, four chests and a half of Bohea tea, and two hogsheads of molasses. He had touched at the late residence of M. Perron, the island of Amsterdam, and brought off as many of the sealskins (his vessel being bound to China after visiting the north-west coast of America) as he could take on board. He had been five months and three days from Boston, touching no where but at the abovementioned island.

We had the satisfaction of hearing, through Mr. McClellan, from the master of the Britannia. He had, according to his instructions, proceeded to Batavia, where judging from his own observation, and by what he heard, that it was unsafe to make any stay, he after four or five days left the port, and by that means fortunately escaped being detained, which, from information that he afterwards received at Bengal, he found would have happened to him. He was to leave Calcutta about the end of December.

The report of the Cape of Good Hope being in our possession had reached that place before the Experiment sailed. On this subject we were rather anxious, as the armed ships which had lately arrived, the Reliance and Supply, were intended to proceed to that port as soon as the season would admit, for cattle for the colony.

Bennillong's influence over his countrymen not extending to the natives at the river, we this month again heard of their violence. They attacked a man who had been allowed to ply with a passage-boat between the port of Sydney and the river, and wounded him, (it was feared mortally,) as he was going with his companion to the settlement; and they were beginning again to annoy the settlers there.

Notwithstanding the reward that had been offered for apprehending black Caesar, he remained at large, and scarcely a morning arrived without a complaint being made to the magistrates of a loss of property supposed to have been occasioned by this man. In fact, every theft that was committed was ascribed to him; a cask of pork was stolen from the millhouse, the upper part of which was accessible, and, the sentinels who had the charge of that building being tried and acquitted, the theft was fixed upon Caesar, or some of the vagabonds who were in the woods, the number of whom at this time amounted to six or eight.

The harvest was all well got in during this month. At Sydney, the labouring hands were employed in unloading the store-ship; for which purpose three men from each farm having ten were ordered in to public work.

On the 21st of this month his Majesty's ship the Reliance sailed for Norfolk Island. In her went Mr. Hibbins, the judge-advocate of that settlement who arrived from England in the Sovereign; and a captain of the New South Wales corps, to take the command of the troops there.

On the 7th the surgeon's mate of the Supply died of a dysenteric complaint. He had attended Mr. Barrow to his grave, who died in December last. On the evening of the 23rd a soldier of the name of Eades, having gone over to the north shore to collect thatch to cover a hut which he had built for the comfort of his family, fell from a rock and was drowned. He left a widow and five small children, mostly females, to lament his loss. He was a quiet man and a good soldier.

February.] The players, with a politic generosity, on the 4th of this month performed the play of The Fair Penitent with a farce, for the benefit of the widow Eades and her family. The house was full, and it was said that she got upwards of twelve pounds by the night.

A circumstance of a disagreeable nature occurred in the beginning of this month. John Baughan*, the master carpenter at this place, being at work in the shed allotted for the carpenters in one of the mill-houses, overheard himself grossly abused by the sentinel who was planted there, and who for that purpose had quitted his post, and placed himself within hearing of Baughan. This sentinel had formerly been a convict, and, while working as such under Baughan in the line of his business, thought himself in some circumstance or other ill-treated by him, for which he 'owed him a grudge', and took this way to satisfy his resentment. Baughan, a man of a sullen and vindictive disposition, perceiving that the sentinel was without his arms, took them, unobserved by him, from the post where he had left them, and delivered them to the sergeant of the guard.

[* John Baughan, alias Buffin, alias Bingham. He had served the term of his transportation, and had for a considerable time been employed in the direction of the carpenters and sawyers at this place.]

The sentinel being confined, the company to which he belonged, indignant at the injury done to their comrade, and too much irritated either to act with prudence, or to consider the conduct they determined to pursue, repaired the following morning to Baughan's house (a neat little cottage which he had built below the hospital), where in a few minutes they almost demolished his house, out-houses, and furniture, and Baughan himself suffered much personal outrage.

They were so sudden in the execution of this business, that the mischief was done before any steps could be taken either by the civil or military power to prevent it.

Baughan, after some days had elapsed, swearing positively to the persons of four of the principals in this transaction, a warrant was made out to apprehend them; but before it could be executed, the soldiers expressing themselves convinced of the great impropriety of their conduct, and offering to indemnify the sufferer for the damage they had done him, who also personally petitioned the governor in their behalf, the warrant was withdrawn.

It was observed, that the most active of the soldiers in this affair had formerly been convicts, who, not having changed their principles with their condition, thus became the means of disgracing their fellow-soldiers. The corps certainly was not much improved by the introduction of people of this description among them. It might well have been supposed, that being taken as good characters from the class of prisoners, they would have felt themselves above mixing with any of them afterwards; but it happened otherwise; they had nothing in them of that pride which is termed l'esprit du corps; but at times mixed with the convicts familiarly as former cornpanions; yet when they chose to quarrel with, or complain of them, they meanly asserted their superiority as soldiers.

This intercourse had been strongly prohibited by their officers; but living (as once before mentioned) in huts by themselves, it was carried on without their knowledge. Most of them were now, however, ordered into the barracks; but to give this regulation the full effect, a high brick wall, or an inclosure of strong paling, round the barracks, was requisite; the latter of these securities would have been put up some time before, had there not been a want of the labouring hands necessary to prepare and collect the materials.

On the 11th of this month the ship Marquis Cornwallis anchored in the cove from Ireland, with two hundred and thirty-three male and female convicts of that country. We understood from her commander, Mr. Michael Hogan, that a conspiracy had been formed to take the ship from him; but, the circumstances of it being happily disclosed in time, he was enabled to prevent it, and having sufficient evidence of the existence of the conspiracy, he caused the principal part of those concerned to be severely punished, first taking the opinions of all the free people who were on board. A military guard, consisting of two subalterns and a proportionate number of privates of the New South Wales corps (principally drafts from other regiments), was embarked in this ship. The prisoners were in general healthy; but some of those who had been punished were not quite recovered, and on landing were sent to the hospital. It appeared that the men were for the most part of the description of people termed Defenders, desperate, and ripe for any scheme from which danger and destruction were likely to ensue. The women were of the same complexion; and their ingenuity and cruelty were displayed in the part they were to take in the purposed insurrection, which was the preparing of pulverised glass to mix with the flour of which the seamen were to make their puddings. What an importation!

A few months provisions for these people, and the remainder* of the mooring chains intended for his Majesty's ships the Reliance and the Supply, together with a patent under the great seal for assembling criminal courts at Norfolk Island, arrived in this ship. She sailed from Cork on the 9th of August last, and touched at the island of St. Helena and the Cape of Good Hope, which latter place, we had the satisfaction of hearing, had surrendered to his Majesty's arms, and was in our possession. General Craig, the commander in chief on shore, and Commodore Blankett, each sent an official communication of this important circumstance to Governor Hunter, and stated their desire to assist in any circumstance that might be of service to the settlement, when the season should offer for sending the ships under his orders to the Cape for supplies.

[* Some part had arrived in the Reliance and Supply.]

With infinite regret we heard of the death of Colonel Gordon, whose attentions to this settlement, when opportunities presented themselves, can never be forgotten. He was a favoured son of science, and liberally extended the advantages which that science gave him wherever he thought they could promote the welfare of his fellow-creatures.

On Monday the 15th a criminal court was held for the trial of two prisoners, William Britton a soldier, and John Reid a convict, for a burglary in the house of the Rev. Mr. Johnson, committed in the night of Sunday the 7th of this month. The evidence, though strong, was not sufficient to convict them, and they were acquitted. While this court was sitting, however, information was received, that black Caesar had that morning been shot by one Wimbow. This man and another, allured by the reward, had been for some days in quest of him. Finding his haunt, they concealed themselves all night at the edge of a brush which they perceived him enter at dusk. In the morning he came out, when, looking round him and seeing his danger, he presented his musket; but before he could pull the trigger Wimbow fired and shot him. He was taken to the hut of Rose, a settler at Liberty Plains, where he died in a few hours. Thus ended a man, who certainly, during his life, could never have been estimated at more than one remove above the brute, and who had given more trouble than any other convict in the settlement.

On the morning of the 18th the Otter sailed for the north-west coast of America. In her went Mr. Thomas Muir (one of the persons sent out in the Surprise for sedition) and several other convicts whose sentences of transportation were not expired. Mr. Muir conceived that in withdrawing (though clandestinely) from this country, he was only asserting his freedom; and meant, if he should arrive in safety, to enjoy what he deemed himself to have regained of it in America, until the time should come when he might return to his own country with credit and comfort. He purposed practising at the American bar as an advocate; a point of information which he left behind him in a letter. In this country he chiefly passed his time in literary ease and retirement, living out of the town at a little spot of ground which he had purchased for the purpose of seclusion.

A few days after the departure of this ship, the Abigail, another American, arrived. As several prisoners had found a conveyance from this place in the Otter, the governor directed the Abigail to be anchored in Neutral Bay (a bay on the north shore, a little below Rock Island), where he imagined the communication would not be so easy as the ships of that nation had found it in Sydney Cove. Her master, Christopher Thornton, gave out that he was bound to Manilla and Canton, having on board a cargo for those places. For part of that cargo, however, he met with purchasers at this place, notwithstanding the glut of articles which the late frequent arrivals must have thrown in. He expected to have found here a snow, named the Susan, which he knew had sailed from Rhode Island with a cargo expressly laid in for this market. He came direct from that port without touching any where.

The frequent attacks and depredations to which the settlers situated on the banks of the Hawkesbury, and other places, were exposed from the natives, called upon them, for the protection of their families, and the preservation of their crops, mutually to afford each other their assistance upon every occasion of alarm, by assembling without delay whenever any numerous bodies of natives were reported to be lurking about their grounds; but they seldom or never showed the smallest disposition to assist each other. Indolent and improvident even for their own safety and interest, they in general neglected the means by which either could be secured. This disposition being soon manifested to the governor, he thought it necessary to issue a public order, stating his expectations and directions, that all the people residing in the different districts of the settlemerits, whether the alarm was on their own farms, or on the farm of any other person, should upon such occasions immediately render to each other such assistance as each man if attacked would himself wish to receive; and he assured them, that if it should be hereafter proved, that any settlers or other persons withdrew or kept back their assistance from those who might be threatened, or who might be in danger of being attacked, they would be proceeded against as persons disobeying the rules and orders of the settlement. Such as had fire-arms were also positively enjoined not wantonly to fire at, or take the lives of any of the natives, as such an act would be considered a deliberate murder, and subject the offender to such punishment as (if proved) the law might direct to be inflicted. It had been intimated to the governor, that two white men (Wilson and Knight) had been frequently seen with the natives in their excursions, and were supposed to direct and assist in those acts of hostility by which the settlers had lately suffered. He therefore recommended to every one who knew or had heard of these people, and particularly to the settlers who were so much annoyed by them, to use every means in their power to secure them, that they might be so disposed of as to prevent their being dangerous or troublesome in future. The settlers were at the same time strictly prohibited from giving any encouragement to the natives to lurk about their farms; as there could not be a doubt, that if they had never met with the shelter which some had afforded them, they would not at this time have furnished so much cause to complaint.

Those natives who lived with the settlers had tasted the sweets of a different mode of living, and, willing that their friends and companions should partake, either stole from those with whom they were living, or communicated from time to time such favourable opportunities as offered of stealing from other settlers what they themselves were pleased with.

At this time several persons who had served their term of transportation were applying for permission to provide for themselves. Of this description were Wilson and Knight; but they preferred a vagrant life with the natives; and the consideration that if taken they would be dealt with in a manner that would prevent their getting among them again, now led them on to every kind of mischief. They demonstrated to the natives of how little use a musket was when once discharged, and this effectually removed that terror of our fire-arms with which it had been our constant endeavour to inspire them.

Several articles having been brought for sale in the Marquis Cornwallis, a shop was opened on shore. As money, or orders on or by any of the responsible officers* of the colony, were taken at this shop for goods, an opportunity was afforded to some knowing ones among the prisoners to play off, not only base money, as counterfeit Spanish dollars and rupees, but forged notes or orders. One forged note for ten pound ten shillings, bearing the commissary's name, was passed at the shop, but fortunately discovered before the recollection of the persons who offered it was effaced, though not in time to recover the property. The whole party was apprehended, and committed for trial.

[* Such as the commissary, paymaster of the corps, and officers who paid companies.]

Discharging the storeships formed the principal labour of this month; which being completed, the assistants required from the farms to unload them were returned.

The bricklayers' gang were employed in erecting a small hut for the accommodation of an officer within the paling of the guardhouse at Sydney, the main guard being now commanded by a subaltern officer.

Mr. Henry Brewer, the provost-marshal of the territory, worn out with age and infirmities, being incapable of the duties of his office, which now required a very active and a much younger man to execute, and at this time very much indisposed, the governor appointed to that situation Mr. Thomas Smyth, then acting as a storekeeper at this place, until Mr. Brewer should be able to return to the duties of it.

During one or two hot days in this month the shrubs and brushwood about the west point of the cove caught fire, and burnt within a few yards of the magazine. On its being extinguished, the powder was removed for a few days on board the Supply, until some security against any future accident of that kind could be thrown up round the building.

March.] Late in the evening of the 5th of March his Majesty's ship the Reliance returned from Norfolk Island. In her came Mr. D'Arcy Wentworth. This person arrived at New South Wales in the Neptune transport, and went immediately to Norfolk Island, where he was employed, first as a superintendant of convicts, and afterwards as an assistant to the surgeon at the hospital there, having been bred to that profession.

By letters received from Mr. Bampton, who sailed from his place in the Endeavour in the month of September last, we now heard, that on his reaching Dusky Bay in New Zealand his ship unfortunately proved so leaky, that with the advice and consent of his officers and people she was run on shore and scuttled. By good fortune the vessel which had been built by the carpenter of the Britannia (when left there with Mr. John Leith the mate, and others, in that ship's first voyage hence to the Cape of Good Hope) being found in the same state as she had been left by them, they completed and launched her, according to a previous agreement between the two commanders. It may be remembered, that in addition to the large number of persons which Mr. Bampton had permission to ship at this port, nearly as many more found means to secrete themselves on board his ship and the Fancy. For these, as well as his officers and ship's company, he had now to provide a passage from the truly desolate shores of New Zealand. He accordingly, after fitting as a schooner the vessel which he had launched, and naming her the Providence, sailed with her and the Fancy for Norfolk Island, having on board as many of the officers and people who reached Dusky Bay with him as they could contain, leaving the remainder to proceed in a vessel which one Hatherleigh (formerly a carpenter's mate of the Sirius, who happened to be with him) undertook to construct out of the Endeavour's long-boat. The Fancy and Providence arrived safe at Norfolk Island, whence they sailed for China on the 31st day of January last.

This unlucky termination of the voyage of the Endeavour brought to our recollection the difficulties and dangers which Mr. Bampton met with in the Shah Hormuzear, when, on his return to India from this country, he attempted to ascertain a passage for future navigators between New Holland and New Guinea.

In the course of this narrative, the different reports received respecting the fate of the boat which landed on Tate Island have been stated. In a Calcutta newspaper, brought here by Mr. McClellan in the Experiment, we now found a printed account of the whole of that transaction, which filled up that chasm in the story which the parties themselves alone could supply.

By referring to the account given in the month of July 1794, as communicated by Mr. Dell, it will appear, that the ship, having been driven to leeward of the island after the boat left her, was three days before she could work up to it. When Mr. Dell went on shore to search for Captain Hill and his companions, he could only, at his return, produce, what he thought incontestable proofs of their having been murdered; such as their greatcoats, a lanthorn, tomahawk, etc. and three hands, one of which, from a certain mark, was supposed to have belonged to Mr. Carter. Of the boat, after the most diligent search round the island, he could find no trace. By the account now published, and which bore every mark of authenticity, it appeared, that when the boat, in which these unfortunate gentlemen were, had reached the island (on the 3rd of July 1793), the natives received them very kindly, and conducted them to a convenient place for landing. After distributing some presents among them, with which they appeared very much satisfied, it was proposed that Mr. Carter, Shaw (the mate of the Chesterfield), and Ascott, should proceed to the top of a high point of land which they had noticed, and that Captain Hill should stay by the boat, with her crew, consisting of four seamen belonging to the Chesterfield.

The inland party, taking the precaution to arm, and provide themselves with a necessary quantity of ammunition, set off. Nothing unfriendly occurred during their walk, though several little circumstances happened, which induced Ascott to suspect that the natives had some design on them; an idea, however, which was scouted by his companions.

On their return from the hill, hostile designs became apparent, and the natives seemed to be deterred from murdering them merely by the activity of Ascott, who, by presenting his musket occasionally, kept them off; but, notwithstanding his activity and vigilance, the natives at length made their attack. They began by attempting to take Ascott's musket from him, finding he was the most likely to annoy them; directly after which, Mr. Carter, who was the foremost of the party, was heard to exclaim, 'My God, my God, they have murdered me.' Ascott, who still retained his musket, immediately fired, on which the natives left them and fled into the bushes. Ascott now had time to look about him, and saw what he justly deemed a horrid spectacle, Mr. Carter lying bleeding on the ground, and Mr. Shaw with a large wound in his throat under the left jaw. They were both however able to rise, and proceed down the hill to the boat. On their arrival at the beach they called to their companions to fire; but, to their extreme horror, they perceived Captain Hill and one of the seamen lying dead on the sand, cut and mangled in a most barbarous manner. Two others of the seamen they saw floating on the water, with their throats cut from ear to ear. The fourth sailor they found dead in the boat, mangled in the same shocking manner. With much difficulty these unhappy people got into their boat, and, cutting her grapnel, pulled off from this treacherous shore. While this was performing, they clearly saw the natives, whom in their account they term voracious cannibals, dragging the bodies of Captain Hill and the seamen from the beach toward some large fires, which they supposed were prepared for the occasion, yelling and howling at the same time most dismally.

These wretched survivors of their companions having seen, from the top of the hill whither their ill-fated curiosity had led them, a large sand-bank not far from the island, determined to run under the lee of it, as they very reasonably hoped that boats would the next morning be sent after them from the ship. They experienced very little rest or ease that night, and when daylight appeared found they had drifted nearly out of sight of the island, and to leeward of the sand-bank.

Deeming it in vain to attempt reaching the bank, after examining what was left in the boat, (a few of the trifles which they had put into her to buy the friendship of the natives, and Ascott's greatcoat, but neither a compass nor a morsel of provisions,) they determined, by the advice of Shaw, who of these three miserable people was the only one that understood any thing of navigation, to run direct for Timor, for which place the wind was then happily fair. To the westward, therefore, they directed their course, trusting (as the printed account stated) to that Providence which had delivered them from the cannibals at Tate Island.*

[* The narrative of this most horrible affair, as printed at Calcutta, was reprinted entire in the European Magazine for May and June 1797.]

Without provisions, destitute of water, and almost without bodily strength, it cannot be doubted that their sufferings were very great before they reached a place of safety and relief. They left the island on the 3rd of July, the day on which their companions were butchered. On the 7th, having the preceding day passed a sand-bank covered with birds, they providentially, in the morning, found two small birds in the boat, one of which they immediately divided into three parts, and were considerably relieved by eating it. On the 8th they found themselves with land on both sides. Through these straits they passed, and continued their course to the westward. All that could be done with their wounds was to keep them clean by opening them occasionally, and washing them with salt water. On the 11th they saw land, and pushed their boat into a bay, all agreeing that they had better trust to the chance of being well received on shore, than to that of perishing in the course of a day or two more at sea. Here they procured some water and a roasted yam from the natives, who also gave them to understand that Timor was to the southward of them. Not thinking themselves quite so safe here as they would be at Coupang, they again embarked. They soon after found a proa in chase of them, which they eluded by standing with their boat over a reef that the proa would not encounter. On the morning of the 13th they saw a point of land ahead, which, with the wind as it then was, they could not weather. They therefore ran into a small bay, where the natives received them, calling out 'Bligh! Bligh!' Here they landed, were hospitably received, and providentially saved from the horror of perishing by famine.

This place was called by the natives Sarrett, and was distinct from Timor Land, which was the first place they refreshed at. They were also informed, that there was another small island to the northward, called by them Fardatte, but which in some charts was named Ta-na-bor. They also understood that a proa came yearly from Banda to trade at Tanabor, and that her arrival was expected in the course of seven or eight months.

They were much gratified with this information, and soon found that they had fallen into the hands of a hospitable and humane race of people.

On the 25th of July Mr. Carter's wound was entirely healed, after having had thirteen pieces of the fractured skull taken out. But this gentleman was fated not long to survive his sufferings. He remained in perfect health until the 17th of November, when he caught a fever, of which he died on the 10th of December, much regretted by his two friends (for adversity makes friends of those who perhaps, in other situations, would never have shaken hands).

The two survivors waited in anxious expectation for the arrival of the annual trading proa from Banda. To their great joy she came on the 12th of March 1794.

For Banda they sailed on the 10th of April, and arrived there on the 1st of May following, where they were received with the greatest hospitality by the governor, who supplied them with every thing necessary for people in their situation, and provided them with a passage on board an Indiaman bound to Batavia, where they arrived on the 10th of the following October; adding another to the many instances of escape from the perils which attend on those whose hard fate have driven them to navigate the ocean in an open boat.

Hard indeed was the fate of Captain Hill and Mr. Carter. They were gentlemen of liberal education, qualified to adorn the circles of life in which their rank in society placed them. How lamentable thus to perish, the one by the hands and rude weapons of barbarous savages, cut off in the prime of life and most perfect enjoyment of his faculties, lost for ever to a mother and sister whom he tenderly loved, his body mangled, roasted, and devoured by cannibals; the other, after escaping from those cannibals, to perish* in a country where all were strangers to him, except his two companions in misery Shaw and Ascott, to give up all his future prospects in life, never more to meet the cheering eye of friendship or of love, and without having had the melancholy satisfaction of recounting his perils, his escape, and sufferings, to those who would sympathise with him in the tale of his sorrows.

[* It is evident, if this account be true, that Mr. Dell must have been mistaken in his opinion of having carried on board the Shah Hormuzear a hand which, from a certain mark on it, he knew to have belonged to Mr. Carter.]

On the 17th the vessel built by the shipwright Hatherleigh at Dusky Bay arrived, with some of the people left behind by Mr. Bampton. They were so distressed for provisions, that the person who had the direction of the vessel could not bring away the whole; and it was singularly fortunate that he arrived as he did, for with all the economy that could be used, his small stock of provisions was consumed to the last mouthful the day before he made the land.

This vessel, which the officer who commanded her (Waine, one of the mates of the Endeavour) not unappropriately named the Assistance, was built entirely of the timber of Dusky Bay, but appeared to be miserably constructed. She was of near sixty tons burden, and was now to be sold* for the benefit of Mr. Bampton.

[* Notwithstanding all her imperfections, she was valued at and sold for two hundred and fifty pounds.]

The situation of the people still remaining at Dusky Bay was not, we understood, the most enviable; their dependence for provisions being chiefly on the seals and birds which they might kill. They had all belonged to this colony, and one or two happened to be persons of good character.

On the 10th the American sailed for the north-west coast of America. In her went Mr. James Fitzpatrick Knaresbro', a gentleman whose hard lot it was to be doomed to banishment for life from his native country, Ireland, and the enjoyment of a comfortable fortune which he there possessed. He arrived here in the Sugar Cane transport, in the year 1793, and had lived constantly at Parramatta with the most rigid economy and severe self-denial even of the common comforts of life.

It was seen with concern that the crops of this season proved in general bad, the wheat being almost every where mixed with a weed named by the farmers Drake. Every care was taken to prevent this circumstance from happening in the ensuing season, by cleaning with the greatest nicety not only such wheat as was intended for seed, but such as was received into the public store from settlers. It was occasioned by the ground being overwrought, from a greediness to make it produce golden harvests every season, without allowing it time to recruit itself from crop to crop, or being able to afford it manure. Had this not happened, the crops would most likely have been immense.

At the Hawkesbury, where alone any promise of agricultural advantages was to be found, the settlers were immersed in intoxication. Riot and madness marked their conduct; and this was to be attributed to the spirits that, in defiance of every precaution, found their way thither.

Early in the month a store-room belonging to Captain Paterson was broken into, and articles to a large amount stolen thereout. A sentinel was stationed in the front of the house; notwithstanding which, the thieves had time to remove, through a small hole that they made in a brick wall, all the property they stole.

In the course of the month Captain Townson, another officer of the corps, was also robbed. He had that morning received in trust sixty pounds in dollars; these, together with his watch, were stolen from him in the following night. His servants were suspected, as were also Captain Paterson's; but nothing could be fixed upon them that bore the resemblance of proof.

Robberies were more frequent now than they had been for some time past, scarcely a night passing without at least an attempt being made. On the 17th, the festival of St. Patrick, the night-watch were assaulted by two fellows, Matthew Farrel and Richard Sutton, (better known by the title of the Newgate Bully,) while the latter was pursued by them from a house which he was endeavouring to break into, to the house of Farrel, who tried to secrete him, and afford him protection.

A woman was stopped in the street at night, and a piece of callico forcibly taken from her. A convict being taken up as the man who had robbed her, she at first was positive to his person, but when brought before a magistrate, on recollecting that his life might be in danger, she was ready to swear that, it being very dark at the time, it was not possible she should know his features. Thus difficult was it too often found to bring these people to justice.

On the 24th his Majesty's ship Supply sailed for Norfolk Island. The patent for holding criminal courts there, which was brought hither by the Cornwallis, was sent by this conveyance, together with R. Sutton (the Newgate Bully) and some other very bad characters, who, it was not unlikely, would soon entitle themselves to the benefit of the patent which accompanied them.

Hogs again became such a public nuisance, by running loose in the town, without rings or yokes, that another order respecting them was given out, directing the owners either to shut them up, or appoint them to be watched when at large.

Reports were again received this month of fresh outrages committed by the natives at the river. The schooner which had been sent round with provisions saw some of these people off a high point of land named Portland Head, who menaced them with their spears, and carried in their appearance every mark of hostility. The governor being at this time on an excursion to that settlement (by water), one of his party landed on the shore opposite Portland Head, and saw at a short distance a large body of natives, who he understood had assembled for the purpose of burning the corpse of a man who had been killed in some contest among themselves.

About this time Bennillong, who occasionally shook off the habits of civilized life, and went for a few days into the woods with his sisters and other friends, sent in word that he had had a contest with his bosom friend Cole-be, in which he had been so much the sufferer, that until his wounds were healed he could not with any pleasure to himself appear at the governor's table. This notification was accompanied with a request, that his clothes, which he had left behind him when he went away, might be sent him, together with some victuals, of which he was much in want.

On his coming among us again, he appeared with a wound on his mouth, which had divided the upper lip and broke two of the teeth of that jaw. His features, never very pleasing, now seemed out of all proportion, and his pronunciation was much altered. Finding himself badly received among the females (although improved by his travels in the little attentions that are supposed to have their weight with the sex) and not being able to endure a life of celibacy, which had been his condition from the day of his departure from this country until nearly the present hour, he made an attack upon his friend's favourite, Boo-ree-a, in which he was not only unsuccessful, but was punished for his breach of friendship, as above related, by Cole-be, who sarcastically asked him, 'if he meant that kind of conduct to be a specimen of English manners?'

The Ceres, having been discharged from government employ, sailed in the beginning of the month for Canton. Being well manned, the master was not in want of any hands from this place; but eight convicts found means to secrete themselves on board a day or two before she sailed. They were however, by the great vigilance of Mr. Hedley, discovered in time to be sent back to their labour. Among them we were not surprised to find two or three of the last importation from Ireland.

We lost four persons by death during this month. On the 6th died of a severe dysentery, Richard Hudson, the sergeant-major of the New South Wales corps. At three in the morning of the 16th Mr. Joseph Gerald breathed his last. A consumption which accompanied him from England, and which all his wishes and efforts to shake off could not overcome, at length brought him to that period when, perhaps, his strong enlightened mind must have perceived how full of vanity and vexation of spirit were the busiest concerns of this world; and into what a narrow limit was now to be thrust that frame which but of late trod firmly in the walk of life, elate and glowing with youthful hope, glorying in being a martyr to the cause which he termed that of Freedom, and considering as an honour that exile which brought him to an untimely grave.* He was followed in three days after by another victim to mistaken opinions, Mr. William Skirving. A dysentery was the apparent cause of his death, but his heart was broken. In the hope of receiving remittances from England, which might enable him to proceed with spirit and success in farming, of which he appeared to have a thorough knowledge, he had purchased from different persons, who had ground to sell, about one hundred acres of land adjacent to the town of Sydney. He soon found that a farm near the sea-coast was of no great value. His attention and his efforts to cultivate the ground were of no avail. Remittances he received none; he contracted some little debts, and found himself neglected by that party for whom he had sacrificed the dearest connexions in life, a wife and family; and finally yielded to the pressure of this accumulated weight. Among us, he was a pious, honest, worthy character. In this settlement his political principles never manifested themselves; but all his solicitude seemed to be to evince himself the friend of human nature. Requiescat in pace!

[* He was buried in the garden of a little spot of ground which he had purchased at Farm Cove. Mr. F. Palmer, we understood, had written his epitaph at large.]



CHAPTER XXXI



Slops served Orders Licences granted The Supply returns from Norfolk Island The Susan from North America and the Indispensable from England A Criminal and Civil Court held Sick Thefts committed The Britannia arrives from Bengal Mr. Raven's opinion as to the time of making a passage to India A Civil Court The Cornwallis and Experiment sail for India Caution to masters of ships A Wind-mill begun Thefts committed State of the settlers The Governor goes to Mount Hunter Regulations Public works Deaths