An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales Volume I Part 36

[* The officers did not begin to open ground until February 1793.]

The people who were to labour for the public had in general been but scantily fed, and this operated against any great exertions. The settlers were not fed any better; and though they had an interest in working with spirit, yet they always looked to be supplied from the public stores beyond the time allowed them; and were consequently careless, indolent, and poor: while the officer, from the hour he received his grant, applied himself with activity to derive a benefit from it; and it was not too much to say, that the independence of the colony was more likely to be attained through their exertions, than by any other means. To encourage them, therefore, was absolutely necessary to accelerate and promote the prosperity of the colony.

One woman and six men, whose terms of transportation had expired, were permitted to quit the colony in the _William_.

Some natives, who had observed the increasing number of the settlers on the banks of the Hawkesbury, and had learned that we were solicitous to discover other fresh-water rivers, for the purpose of forming settlements, a.s.sured us, that at no very great distance from Botany Bay, there was a river of fresh water which ran into the sea. As very little of the coast to the southward was known, it was determined to send a small party in that direction, with provisions for a few days, it not being improbable that, in exploring the country, a river might be found which had hitherto escaped the observation of s.h.i.+ps running along the coast.

Two people of sufficient judgment and discretion for the purpose being found among the military, they set off from the south sh.o.r.e of Botany Bay on the 14th, well armed, and furnished with provisions for a week. They were accompanied by a young man, a native, as a guide, who professed a knowledge of the country, and named the place where the fresh water would be found to run. Great expectations were formed of this excursion, from the confidence with which the native repeatedly a.s.serted the existence of a freshwater river; on the 20th, however, the party returned, with an account, that the native had soon walked beyond his own knowledge of the country, and trusted to them to bring him safe back; that having penetrated about twenty miles to the southward of Botany Bay, they came to a large inlet of the sea, which formed a small harbour; the head of this they rounded, without discovering any river of fresh water near it.

The country they described as high and rocky in the neighbourhood of the harbour, which, on afterwards looking into the chart, was supposed to be somewhere about Red Point. The native returned with the soldiers as cheerfully and as well pleased as if he had led them to the banks of the first river in the world.

An excursion of another nature was at this time framing among some discontented Irish convicts, and was on the point of being carried into execution when discovered. Among those who came out in the last s.h.i.+ps from Ireland was a convict who had been an attorney in that kingdom, and who was weak enough to form the hazardous scheme with several others of seizing a long-boat, in which they were to endeavour to reach Batavia. A quant.i.ty of provisions, water-casks, sails, and other necessary articles, were provided, and were found, at the time of making the discovery, in the house of the princ.i.p.al. These people had much greater reason to rejoice at, than to regret, the discovery of their plot; for the wind, on the day succeeding the night in which they were to have gone off, blew a heavy gale; and, as there were no professed seamen in the party, it was more than probable that the boat would have been lost. The greatest evil that attended these desertions was the loss of the boats which were taken off, for the colony could not sustain much injury by the absence of a few wretches who were too idle to labour, and who must be constantly whispering their own discontents among the other convicts.

On the 24th of this month we had the satisfaction of seeing the _Indispensable_, a stores.h.i.+p, anchor in the cove from England, with a cargo consisting princ.i.p.ally of provisions for the colony. We understood that she was the first of six or seven s.h.i.+ps which were all to bring out stores and provisions, and which, if no accident happened in the pa.s.sage, might be expected to arrive in the course of two months. The supply of clothing and provisions intended to be conveyed by them, together with what had been received by the _William_, was calculated for the consumption of a twelvemonth. The quant.i.ty which now arrived in the _Indispensable_ formed a supply of flour for twelve weeks, beef for four ditto, pork for four ditto, and of peas for fourteen ditto. She sailed from Spithead the 26th of last December, touched at Teneriffe and at the Cape of Good Hope, from which place she sailed on the 30th of March last, and made the South Cape of this country the 17th of this month. Between the Cape of Good Hope and this port, the master stated that he found the weather in general very rough, and the prevailing winds to have blown from WNW to SW.

At the Cape of Good Hope Mr. Wilkinson met with the _Chesterfield_, which sailed hence in April 1793 with the _Shah Hormuzear_; and one of her people, who had been formerly a convict in this country, wis.h.i.+ng to return to it, we now collected from him some information respecting Mr. Bampton's voyage. He told us, that the two s.h.i.+ps were six months in their pa.s.sage hence to Timor, owing to the difficulty which they met with in the navigation of the straits between New Holland and New Guinea. On one of the islands in these straits they lost a boat, which had been sent on sh.o.r.e to trade with the natives. In this boat went, never to return (according to this person's account), Captain Hill; Mr. Carter, a friend of Mr. Bampton's;--Shaw, the first mate of the _Chesterfield_;--Ascott, who had been a convict here, and who had distinguished himself at the time the _Sirius_ was lost; and two or three black people belonging to the _Shah Hormuzear_. It was conjectured that they were, immediately after landing, murdered by the natives, as the people of a boat that was sent some hours after to look for them found only the clothes which they had on when they left the s.h.i.+p, and a lantern and tinder-box which they had taken with them; the clothes were torn into rags. At a fire they found three hands; but they were so black and disfigured by being burnt, that the people could not ascertain whether they had belonged to black or white men. If the account of this man might be credited, the end of these unfortunate gentlemen and their companions must have been truly horrid and deplorable; it was however certain that the s.h.i.+ps sailed from the island without them, and their fate was left in uncertainty, though every possible effort to discover them was made by Mr. Bampton.

At Timor Mr. Bampton took in a very valuable freight of sandal wood, with which he proceeded to Batavia; and when the _Chesterfield_ parted company, he hoped soon to return to this country.

In consequence of the supplies received by the _Indispensable_, the full ration of flour was directed to be issued, and the commissary was ordered not to receive for the present any more Indian corn that might be brought to the public stores for sale. The following weekly ration was established until further orders, and commenced on the 27th:

Flour eight pounds; beef seven pounds or pork four pounds; Indian corn three pints, in lieu of peas.

The whole quant.i.ty of Indian corn purchased by the commissary on account of Government from settlers and others amounted to six thousand one hundred and sixty-three bushels and a quarter, which, taken at five s.h.i.+llings per bushel, came to the sum of 1540 16s 3d.

Toward the latter end of this month, Wilkinson, the millwright, was drowned in a pond in the neighbourhood of the Hawkesbury River. He had been there on a Sunday with some of the settlers to shoot ducks, and getting entangled with the weeds in the pond was drowned, though a good swimmer; thus untimely peris.h.i.+ng before he could reap any reward from his industry and abilities.

Several people still continued to complain of sore eyes, but the disorder was disappearing fast.

June.] The signal for a sail was made in the morning of the first of June, and was conjectured to be for one of the s.h.i.+ps expected to arrive from England; but in a few hours word was brought that the _Britannia_ was safe within the harbour. This arrival gave general satisfaction, as many doubts about her return had been created by some accounts which the master of the _Indispensable_ had heard at the Cape of Good Hope, of the Bay of Bengal being full of French privateers.

On Mr. Raven's arrival at the settlement, we learned that he had been forced to go to Batavia instead of Bengal, having been attacked in the Straits of Malacca by a fleet of piratical Proas, which engaged him for six hours, and from whom he might have found some difficulty to escape, had he not fortunately killed the captain of the one which was nearest to the _Britannia_ when in the act of making preparations for boarding him.

At Batavia he was informed that his pa.s.sage to Bengal was very precarious, from the number of French privateers which infested the bay, as well as the west coast of Sumatra, several vessels having arrived at Batavia which had been chased by them. Mr. Raven, therefore, determined to load the _Britannia_ at Batavia, and, after some necessary arrangements with the governor-general and council, purchased the following cargo at the annexed prices for the settlements in New South Wales, viz

Rix dollars Stivers

250 Casks of beef--111,264 lbs. at 9 stivers* 20,862 2 250 Casks of pork--83,865 lbs. at ditto 15,724 37 500 Pecols** of sugar, at 7 rix dollars 27 stivers per Pecol 3,781 12 35 Coyangs*** of rice, at 55 rix dollars per Coyang 1,925 0

[* Forty-eight stivers the rix dollar.]

[** Pecol, one hundred and thirty-three pounds English.]

[*** Coyang, three thousand three hundred and seventy-five pounds Dutch.]

To these must be added for extra boat hire. Hire of twenty black people for twenty days, and commission on the purchase at 2 per cent. 1493 0 ---------- Rix dollars 42,786 3

The bills drawn on the treasury for this cargo bearing a premium of 16 per cent, there was deducted from the whole 6,040 0 Which reduced the total amount to rix dollars 37,746 3

s d Or in sterling money of Great Britain 7,549 4 3 To which the hire* of the s.h.i.+p being added, 2,210 7 7 ------------ The whole of the expense amounted to 9,759 11 10

[* She was chartered at fourteen s.h.i.+llings and sixpence per ton per month, and to be paid for two hundred and ninety-six tons, her registered measurement.]

Captain Nepean, who left this place as a pa.s.senger in the _Britannia_, and took with him some dispatches for government, and the private letters of the officers, left Batavia on the 17th of February last in the _Prince William Henry_, a fast sailing schooner, bound direct for England.

The _Britannia_ arrived at Batavia on the 11th of February, and sailed for this country on the 10th of April following. While she lay at Batavia, the season was extremely unhealthy, and some of her people fell victims to the well-known insalubrity of the climate.

At Batavia Mr. Raven learned that the _Shah Hormuzear_ sailed from thence for Bombay three months before he arrived there; and the report we had heard of the disaster which befel the boat and people from that s.h.i.+p, in the pa.s.sage through the Straits between this country and New Guinea, was confirmed at Batavia. As, however, Mr. Bampton had not since been heard of, it was more than probable he had fallen a prize to some of the privateers which were to be met with in those seas.

His Majesty's birthday did not pa.s.s without that distinction which we all, as Englishmen devoted to our sovereign, had infinite pleasure in showing it.

On the 8th the _Speedy_, a stores.h.i.+p commanded by Mr. Melville, who was here in 1791 in the _Britannia_ whaler, anch.o.r.ed in the cove from England, with a cargo of stores and provisions for the colony, and clothing for the New South Wales corps. Mr. Melville sailed a few hours before the _Indispensable_, and touched at Rio de Janeiro, whence he had a long pa.s.sage of several weeks. He made the south cape of this country the 2nd instant; and arrived here in a leaky and weak condition.

Good fortune befriended us in the pa.s.sage of this s.h.i.+p; for she ran safely through every part where there could be danger, without a gun on board to defend her from an enemy if she should have met with any.

On the 14th, a few hours after the signal was made at the South Head, arrived in the harbour the _Halcyon_, a s.h.i.+p from Rhode Island, commanded by Mr. Benjamin Page, who was here in the s.h.i.+p _Hope_ at the close of the year 1792, and who had ventured here again with a cargo of provisions and spirits* on speculation.

[* Eight hundred barrels of beef and pork, American cured. About five thousand gallons of spirits; a small quant.i.ty of tobacco, tea, nankeens, etc.]

Mr. Page made his pa.s.sage from Rhode Island in one hundred and fifteen days, and without touching at any port. His run from the south cape of New Holland was only five days. The s.h.i.+p he built himself at Providence, after his return from China in the _Hope_. That s.h.i.+p was only two months in her voyage from hence to Canton, and Mr. Page did not see any land until he made the Island of Tinian. This place he now represented as well calculated to furnish a freight of cattle for this colony.

Of the convicts that Mr. Page was permitted to s.h.i.+p at this port in his last voyage, William Murphy behaved so extremely ill, having more than once endeavoured to excite the crew to mutiny, that at St Helena he delivered him to the captain of his Majesty's s.h.i.+p _Powerful_, whom he found there. This proved in the event a circ.u.mstance of great good fortune to Murphy, for, being directly rated on that s.h.i.+p's books (his abilities as a sail-maker ent.i.tling him to that situation), and a French East Indiamen being captured by the _Powerful_ a very few hours after, he became ent.i.tled to a seaman's share of the produce of her cargo, which was a very valuable one.

Bateman he carried on with him to Rhode Island, where he married, but had more than once exhibited symptoms of returning to habits which he had not forgotten, and which would soon bring him to disgrace in his new situation. Shepherd he had put on board a s.h.i.+p bound to Ostend, and spoke well of his conduct.

Captain Page at first thought he had come to a bad market with his provisions; for the day was arrived when we found ourselves enabled to say that we were not in want of any casual supplies; but by the end of the month he declared he had not made a bad voyage; his spirits and provisions were nearly all purchased by individuals; and what he at first thought an unprofitable circ.u.mstance to him (the sight of four s.h.i.+ps at anchor in the cove) proved favourable, for the most of his provisions were disposed of among the s.h.i.+pping. The whole of the spirits were purchased by the officers of the settlement and of the garrison at the rate of six s.h.i.+llings per gallon; and afforded, together with what had been received from Batavia by the _Britannia_, a large and comfortable supply of that article for a considerable time.

It might be safely p.r.o.nounced, that the colony never wore so favourable an appearance as at this period: our public stores filled with wholesome provisions; five s.h.i.+ps on the seas with additional supplies; and wheat enough in the ground to promise the realizing of many a golden dream; a rapidly increasing stock; a country gradually opening, and improving every where upon us as it opened; with a spirit universally prevalent of cultivating it.

The s.h.i.+ps which had lately arrived from England were fraught with the dismal and ill-founded accounts, which through some evil design continued to be insidiously propagated, of the wretched unprofitable soil of New South Wales. It was hoped, however, that when the present appearance and state of the colony should reach England, every attempt to mislead the public would cease; and such encouragement be held out as would induce individuals to settle in the country.

In the _Halcyon_ arrived an American gentleman (Mr. W. Megee) in the character of supercargo. This person, on seeing the Toongabbie hills covered with a most promising crop of wheat, declared that be had never seen better in America, even at Rhode island, the garden of America; and on being shown some Indian corn of last year's growth, gave it as his opinion, that we wanted nothing but large herds of grazing cattle, to be a thriving, prosperous, and great colony, possessing within itself all the essential articles of life.

We ourselves had long been impressed with an idea of the advantage that grazing cattle would give to the country; every possible care was taken of the little that was in it, and all means used to promote its increase.

One step toward this was the keeping up the price; an article by which the proprietor was always certain of making a great profit, was as certain to be taken the greatest care of, every individual possessing stock found it his interest to preserve it in the highest order, that it might be deemed equal to the general high value which stock bore.

By an account which was taken at the end of this month of the live stock in the colony, the following numbers appeared to be in the possession of government and of individuals, viz.

HORSES Mares Stallions Government stock 6 6 Private stock 5 3 Total 11 9

a.s.sES Male Female Government stock - - Private stock 2 1 Total 2 1

OXEN Bulls Cows Government stock 14 18 Private stock 1 7 Total 15 25

SHEEP Ewes Rams and Wethers Government stock 59 49 Private stock 257 161 Total 316 210

GOATS Male Female Government stock 3 10 Private stock 167 342 Total 170 352

TOTAL Government stock 165 Private stock 946 Total 1111

In this account the hogs (from their being so disposed as not easily to be ascertained) were not included; but they were supposed to amount to several hundreds.