Volume I Part 19 (1/2)

After the arrival of the _Matilda_, the governor, judging that his stores would admit of increasing the weekly allowance of flour, directed that (instead of three) five pounds of that article should be issued to each man; and to each woman an addition of half a pound to the three which they before received. The other articles of the ration remained as before.

The platform which had been constructing on the West Point since June last being ready for the reception of the cannon, they were moved thither about the middle of the month; in doing which, a triangle which was made use of, not being properly secured, slipped and fell upon a convict (an overseer), by which accident his thigh was dislocated, and his body much bruised. He was taken to the hospital, where, fortunately, Mr. White immediately reduced the luxation.

About noon on Sat.u.r.day the 20th, the _Atlantic_ transport anch.o.r.ed in the cove from Plymouth, whence she sailed with two other transports, and parted with them about five weeks since in bad weather between Rio de Janeiro and this port, the pa.s.sage from which had not been more than ten weeks. She had on board a sergeant's party of the new corps as a guard to two hundred and twenty male convicts, eighteen of whom died on the pa.s.sage. The remainder came in very healthy, there being only nine sick on board. The evening before her arrival she stood into a capacious bay, situated between Long Nose and Cape St. George, where they found good anchorage and deep water. Lieutenant Richard Bowen, the naval agent on board, who landed, described the soil to be sandy, and the country thickly covered with timber. He did not see any natives, but found a canoe upon the beach, whose owners perhaps were not far off. This canoe, by Lieutenant Bowen's account, appeared to be on a somewhat stronger construction than the canoes of Port Jackson.

The signal for another sail was made the next morning at the Lookout, and about one o'clock the _Salamander_ transport arrived. She sailed from England under Lieutenant Bowen's orders, with a sergeant's party of the new corps and one hundred and sixty male convicts on board, one hundred and fifty-five of whom she brought in all healthy, except one man who was in the sick list. The party arrived without the sergeant, he having deserted on their leaving England.

Both these transports having brought a supply of provisions calculated to serve nine months for the convicts that were embarked, the governor directed the commissary to issue the full ration of provisions, serving rice in lieu of peas; the reduced ration having continued from Sat.u.r.day the 2nd day of last April to Sat.u.r.day the 27th of August; twenty-one weeks.

A party of one hundred convicts were sent from the Atlantic to Parramatta, the remainder were landed and disposed of at Sydney. The _Salamander_ was ordered to proceed to Norfolk Island with the people and the cargo she had on board.

There were at this time not less than seventy persons from the _Matilda_ and _Atlantic_ under medical treatment, being weak, emaciated, and unfit for any kind of labour; and the list was increasing. It might have been supposed that on changing from the unwholesome air of a s.h.i.+p's between-decks to the purer air of this country, the weak would have gathered strength; but it had been observed, that in general soon after landing, the convicts were affected with dysenteric complaints, perhaps caused by the change of water, many dying, and others who had strength to overcome the disease recovering from it but slowly.

On the 28th the _William and Ann_ transport arrived (the last of Lieutenant Bowen's division). She had on board one sergeant and twelve privates of the new corps, one hundred and eighty-one male convicts, with her proportion of stores and provisions. She sailed with one hundred and eighty-eight convicts from England, but lost seven on the pa.s.sage; the remainder came in very healthy, five only being so ill as to require removal. The first mate of this s.h.i.+p, Mr. Simms, formerly belonged to the _Golden Grove_ transport.

The town beginning to fill with strangers (officers and seamen from the transports) and spirituous liquors finding their way among the convicts, it was ordered that none should be landed until a permit had been granted by the judge-advocate; and the provost-marshal, his a.s.sistant, and two princ.i.p.als of the watch, were deputed to seize all spirituous liquors which might be landed without.

Ballooderry, the proscribed native, having ventured into the town with some of his friends, one or two armed parties were sent to seize him, and a spear having been thrown (it was said by him) two muskets were fired, by which one of his companions was wounded in the leg; but Ballooderry was not taken. On the following day it was given out in orders, that he was to be taken whenever an opportunity offered; and that any native attempting to throw a spear in his defence, as it was well known among them why vengeance was denounced against him, was, if possible, to be prevented from escaping with impunity.

Those who knew Ballooderry regretted that it had been necessary to treat him with this harshness, as among his countrymen we had no where seen a finer young man. The person who had been wounded by him in the month of June last was not yet recovered.

Discharging the transports formed the princ.i.p.al labour of the month; the s.h.i.+ngles on the roof of the old hospital being found to decay fast, and many falling off, the whole were removed, and the building was covered with tiles.

The convicts at Parramatta were employed in opening some ground about a mile and a half above that settlement, along the south side of the creek; and it was expected from the exertions which they were making, that between forty and fifty acres would be soon ready for sowing with Indian corn for this season. Their labour was directed by Thomas Daveney, a free person who came out with the governor.

CHAPTER XIV

The _Salamander_ sails for, and the _Mary Ann_ arrives from Norfolk Island Bondel, a native, returns A seaman, for sinking a canoe, punished The _Gorgon_ arrives Commission of emanc.i.p.ation, and public seal The _Active_ and _Queen_ arrive Complaints against the master of the _Queen_ _Supply_ ordered home _Albemarle_ arrives Mutiny on board _Britannia_ and _Admiral Barrington_ arrive Future destination of the transports The _Atlantic_ and _Queen_ hired _Atlantic_ sails for Bengal _Salamander_ returns from Norfolk Island Transactions Public works Suicide

September.] It became necessary to land the cargo brought out in the _Salamander_, for the purpose of restowing it in a manner convenient for getting it out at Norfolk Island while the s.h.i.+p was under sail. The great inconvenience attending landing a cargo in such a situation had been pointed out in letters which could not yet have been attended to. It was at the same time suggested, that s.h.i.+ps should be freighted purposely for Norfolk Island, with casks and bales adapted to the size of the island boats, which would in a great measure lessen the inconvenience above mentioned.

On the 3rd, near two hundred male convicts, with a sergeant's party of the New South Wales corps, some stores and provisions, having been put on board the _Salamander_, she sailed for Norfolk Island the following morning: and the _Mary Ann_ returned from that settlement on the 8th, having been absent only four weeks and two days. The convicts, troops, stores, and provisions, were all landed safely; but an unexpected surf rising at the back of the reef, filling the only boat (a Greenland whale-boat) which the master took with him, she was dashed upon the reef, and stove; the people, who all belonged to the whaler, fortunately saved themselves by swimming.

From Norfolk Island we learned, that the crops of wheat then in the ground promised well, having been sown a month earlier than those of the last season. Of the public ground ninety acres were in wheat, and one hundred in Indian corn: of the ground cleared by the convicts, and cultivated by themselves for their own maintenance, there were not less, at the departure of the transport, than two hundred and fifty acres.

Bondel, a native boy, who went thither with Captain Hill, to whom he was attached, in the month of March last, came back by this conveyance to his friends and relations at Port Jackson. During his residence on the island, which Mr. Monroe said he quitted reluctantly, he seemed to have gained some smattering of our language, certain words of which he occasionally blended with his own.

Some prisoners having been sent from Norfolk Island, the criminal court was a.s.sembled on the 15th for the trial of one of them for a capital offence committed there; but for want of sufficient evidence he was acquitted. Great inconvenience was experienced from having to send prisoners from that island with all the necessary witnesses. In the case just mentioned the prosecutor was a settler, who being obliged to leave his farm for the time, the business of which was necessarily suspended until he could return, was ruined: and one of the witnesses was in nearly the same situation. But as the courts in New South Wales would always be the superior courts, it was not easy to discover a remedy for these inconveniences.'

A seaman of one of the transports having been clearly proved to have wantonly sunk a canoe belonging to a native, who had been paddling round the s.h.i.+p, and at last ventured on board, he was ordered to be punished, and to give the native a complete suit of wearing apparel, as a satisfaction for the injury he had done him, as well as to induce him to abandon any design of revenge which he might have formed. The corporal punishment was however afterwards remitted, and the seaman ordered to remain on board his s.h.i.+p while she should continue in this port.

Some of the soldiers who came out in the _William and Ann_ transport having exhibited complaints against the master, whom they accused of a.s.saulting and severely beating them during the pa.s.sage, the affair was investigated before three magistrates, and a fine laid upon the master, which he paid.

On Wednesday the 21st his Majesty's s.h.i.+p _Gorgon_ of forty-four guns, commanded by Captain John Parker, anch.o.r.ed within the heads of the harbour, reaching the settlement the following morning, and anchoring where his Majesty's late s.h.i.+p _Sirius_ used to moor.

The _Gorgon_ sailed from England on the 15th of March last, touching on her pa.s.sage at the islands of Teneriffe and St. Iago, and at the Cape of Good Hope, where she remained six weeks, taking in three bulls, twenty-three cows, sixty-eight sheep, eleven hogs, two hundred fruit trees, a quant.i.ty of garden seed, and other articles for the colony.

Unfortunately, the bulls and seven of the cows died; but a bull calf, which had been produced on board, arrived in good condition.

Six months provisions for about nine hundred people, with stores for his Majesty's armed tender the _Supply_, and for the marine detachment, were sent out in the _Gorgon_; wherein also was embarked Mr. King, the late commandant of Norfolk Island, now appointed by his Majesty lieutenant-governor of that settlement, and a commander in the navy; together with Mr. Charles Grimes, commissioned as a deputy surveyor-general to be employed at Norfolk Island; the chaplain and quarter-master of the New South Wales corps, and Mr David Burton, a superintendant of convicts.