Volume I Part 25 (1/2)
The governor directed the commissary to purchase such part of the _Philadelphia's_ cargo as he thought was immediately wanting in the colony; and five hundred and sixty-nine barrels of American cured beef, each barrel containing one hundred and ninety-three pounds, and twenty-seven barrels of pitch and tar, were taken into store; the expense of which amounted to 2829 lls.
Notwithstanding the great length of time Captain Patrickson had been on his voyage (from the beginning of April to November) his speculation did not prove very disadvantageous to him. A great part of his cargo, that was not taken by government, was disposed of among the officers and others of the settlement; and the governor hired his vessel to take provisions to Norfolk Island, giving him 150 for the run. Captain Patrickson had formed some expectation of disposing of his vessel in this country; but the governor, having received intimation that the _Kitty_ might be detained in the service as long as he found it necessary after her arrival, did not judge it expedient to purchase the vessel.
On the 3rd of the month three warrants of emanc.i.p.ation pa.s.sed the seal of the territory: one to John Trace, a convict who came out in the first fleet; having but three months of his term of transportation remaining, that portion of it was given up to him, that he might become a settler.
The second was granted to Thomas Restil (alias Crowder) on the recommendation of the lieutenant-governor of Norfolk Island, on condition that he should not return to England during the term of his natural life, his sentence of transportation being _durante vitae_. The third warrant was made out in favour of one who whatever might have been his conduct when at large in society, had here not only demeaned himself with the strictest propriety, but had rendered essential services to the colony--George Barrington. He came out in the _Active_; on his arrival the governor employed him at Toongabbie, and in a situation which was likely to attract the envy and hatred of the convicts, in proportion as he might be vigilant and inflexible. He was first placed as a subordinate, and shortly after as a princ.i.p.al watchman; in which situation he was diligent, sober, and impartial; and had rendered himself so eminently serviceable, that the governor resolved to draw him from the line of convicts; and, with the instrument of his emanc.i.p.ation, he received a grant of thirty acres of land in an eligible situation near Parramatta.* Here was not only a reward for past good conduct, but an incitement to a continuance of it; and Barrington found himself, through the governor's liberality, though not so absolutely free as to return to England at his own pleasure, yet enjoying the immunities of a free man, a settler, and a civil officer, in whose integrity much confidence was placed.
[* He was afterwards sworn in as a peace officer.]
On the 13th the _Royal Admiral_ sailed for Canton. Of the private speculation brought out in this s.h.i.+p, they sold at this place and at Parramatta to the amount of 3600 and left articles to be sold on commission to the amount of 750 more.
Captain Bond was obliged to leave behind him one of his quartermasters and six sailors, who ran away from the s.h.i.+p. The quartermaster had served in the same capacity on board of the _Sirius_, and immediately after his arrival in England (in the snow) engaged himself with Captain Bond for the whole of the voyage; but a few days before the departure of the s.h.i.+p from this port, he found means to leave her, and, a.s.sisted by some of the settlers, concealed himself in the woods until concealment was no longer necessary. On giving himself up, he entered on board the _Atlantic_; but on his declaring that he did not intend returning to England, the governor ordered him into confinement. The sailors were put into one of the longboats, to be employed between this place and Parramatta, until they could be put on board a s.h.i.+p that might convey them hence.
It was never desirable that seamen should receive encouragement to run from their s.h.i.+ps; they became public nuisances here; the masters of such s.h.i.+ps would find themselves obliged to procure convicts at any rate to supply their places; indeed, so many might be s.h.i.+pped or secreted on board, as might render the safety of the vessel very precarious; and as the governor determined to represent the conduct of any master who carried away convicts without his approbation, so he resolved never to deprive them of their seamen. Under this idea, a hut, in which a seaman from the _Royal Admiral_ was found concealed, was pulled down, and two convicts who had been secreted on board that s.h.i.+p were sent up to Toongabbie, as a punishment, as well as to be out of the way of another attempt.
On the 18th the _Kitty_ transport anch.o.r.ed in the cove from England, after a circuitous pa.s.sage of thirty-three weeks, round by the Rio de Janeiro and the Cape of Good Hope. She twice sailed from England. On her first departure, which was in March last, she had on board thirty female and ten male convicts; but being obliged to put back to Spithead, to stop a leak which she sprung in her raft port, eight of her ten male convicts found means to make their escape. This was an unfortunate accident; for they had been particularly selected as men who might be useful in the colony. Of the two who did remain, the one was a brick-maker and the other a joiner.
When her cargo was landing, it was found to have suffered considerably by the bad weather she had experienced; the flour in particular, an article which could at no time bear any diminution in this country, was much damaged. The convicts had for a long time been nearly as much distressed for utensils to dress their provisions, as they had been for provisions; and we had now the mortification to find, that of the small supply of iron pots which had been put on board, a great part were either broken or cracked, having been literally stowed among the provision casks in the hold.
There arrived in this s.h.i.+p two chests, containing three thousand eight hundred and seventy ounces of silver, in dollars, amounting to 1001.
This remittance was sent out for the purpose of paying such sums as were due to the different artificers who had been employed in this country. It was also applied to the payment of the wages due to the superintendants, who had experienced much inconvenience from not receiving their salaries here; and indeed the want of public money had been very much felt by every one in the colony. When the marines, who became settlers before and at the relief of the detachment, were discharged for that purpose, they would have suffered great difficulties from the want of public money to pay what was due to them, had not the commissary taken their respective powers of attorney, and given them notes on himself, payable either in cash, or in articles which might be the means of rendering them comfortable, and of which he had procured a large supply from Calcutta.
These notes pa.s.sed through various hands in traffic among the people of the description they were intended to serve, and became a species of currency which was found very convenient to them.
The female convicts who arrived in the _Kitty_, twenty-seven in number, were immediately sent up to Parramatta.
Government had put on board the _Kitty_ a naval agent, Lieutenant Daniel Woodriff, for the purpose of seeing that no unnecessary delays were made in the voyage, and that the convicts on board were not oppressed by the master or his people. This officer, on his arrival, stated to the governor his opinion that the master had not made the best of his way, and that he had remained longer in the port of Rio de Janeiro than there could possibly be occasion for. He likewise stated several disagreements which had occurred between him and the master, and in which the latter seemed to think very lightly of the authority of a naval agent on board his s.h.i.+p. There was also on board this s.h.i.+p, on the part of the crown, a medical gentleman who was appointed for the express purpose of attending to such convicts as might be ill during the voyage; so extremely solicitous were the members of Administration to guard against the evils which had befallen the convicts in former pa.s.sages to this country.
At Parramatta a brick hospital, consisting of two wards, was finished this month; and the sick were immediately removed into it. The spot chosen for this building was at some distance from the princ.i.p.al street of the town, and convenient to the water; and, to prevent any improper communication with the other convicts, a s.p.a.ce was to be inclosed and paled in round the hospital, in which the sick would have every necessary benefit from air and exercise.
At the other settlement they had begun to reap the wheat which was sown in April last; and for want of a granary at that place it was put into stacks. From not being immediately thrashed out, there was no knowing with certainty what the produce of it was; but it had every appearance of turning out well. The ear was long and full, and the straw remarkably good.
December.] On the 3rd of this month, the governor, as one of his last acts in the settlement, ordered one pound of flour to be added to the weekly ration, which, by means of this addition, stood on his departure at 3 pounds of flour, 5 pounds of rice, 4 pounds of pork or 7 pounds of beef, 3 pounds of dholl, and 6 ounces of oil.
On the 7th the _Philadelphia_ sailed for Norfolk Island, having on board for that settlement Mr. Grimes, the deputy surveyor; Mr. Jamieson who was to superintend the convicts employed there in cultivations; Mr. Peat, the master-carpenter (there being a person* in that situation here of much ability); a convict who came out in the _Royal Admiral_, to be employed as a master-tailor; two Convicts sawyers, and one convict carpenter, the same who came out with his family in the _Kitty_; together with some provisions and stores. His excellency had always attended to this little colony with a parental care; often declaring, that from the peculiarity of its situation he would rather that want should be felt in his own government than in that dependency; and as they would be generally eight or ten weeks later than this colony in receiving their supplies, by reason of the time which the s.h.i.+ps necessarily required to refit after coming in from sea, he purposed furnis.h.i.+ng them with a proportion of provisions for three months longer than the provisions in store at this place would last: and his excellency took leave of that settlement, by completing, as fully as he was able, this design.
[* Mr. Thomas Livingstone, at a salary of 50 per annum.]
He was now about taking leave of his own government. The accommodations for his excellency and the officers who were going home in the _Atlantic_ being completed, the detachment of marines under the command of Lieutenant Poulden embarked on the 5th, and at six o'clock in the evening of Monday the 10th Governor Phillip quitted the charge with which he had been entrusted by his Sovereign, and in the execution of which he had manifested a zeal and perseverance that alone could have enabled him to surmount the natural and artificial obstacles which the country and its inhabitants had thrown in his way.
The colony had now been established within a few weeks of five years; and a review of what had been done in cultivation under his excellency's direction in that time cannot more properly be introduced than at the close of his government.
Previous to the sailing of the _Britannia_ on the 24th of last October, an accurate survey of the whole ground in cultivation, both on account of the crown, and in the possession of individuals, was taken by the surveyor-general, and transmitted to England by that s.h.i.+p; and from the return which he then made, the following particulars were extracted:
GROUND IN CULTIVATION, THE 16TH OCTOBER 1792 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Acres Acres Acres Ground Total in in in Garden cleared number wheat barley maize ground of timber of acres ----------------------------------------------------------------------- At Parramatta 7 308 - - 316 At and leading to 171 14 511 - - 696 Toongabbie Total public ground 172 21 819 - - 1012
_Belonging to Settlers and others_ At Parramatta, (1 The governor's garden - 2 (3 vines - 6 Garden ground belonging to different people, including convicts' gardens - - - 104 - 104 At Parramatta, 1 settler 3 - 18 1 7 29 At Prospect Hill, four miles to the westward of Parramatta, 18 settlers 11 - 84 - - 95 At the Ponds, two miles to the northeast of Parramatta, 16 settlers 10 2 63 3 16 95 At the Northern boundary farms, two miles from Parramatta, 5 settlers 3 - 35 2 11 51 At the Field of Mars, on the north sh.o.r.e, near the entrance of the creek leading to Parramatta, 8 settlers, (marines) 4 - 44 2 31 81 At the Eastern farms, 12 settlers - - 40 - 12 53 On the creek leading to Parramatta, 7 settlers 4 - 80 4 22 111 In cultivation by the civil and military at Sydney - - - - 6 6 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Total 208 24 1186 121 162 1703 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
Of the sixty-seven settlers above enumerated, one, James Ruse, who had a grant of thirty acres at Parramatta, went upon his farm the latter end of November 1789; but none of the others began to cultivate ground upon their own accounts earlier than the middle of July 1791; but many of them at a much later date. The eight marine settlers at the Field of Mars took possession of their allotments at the beginning of February 1792. The conditions held out to settlers were, to be victualled and clothed from the public store for eighteen months from the term of their becoming settlers; to be furnished with tools and implements of husbandry; grain to sow their grounds, and such stock as could be spared from the public.
They were likewise to have a.s.signed them the services of such a number of convicts as the governor should think proper, on their making it appear that they could employ, feed, and clothe them. Every man had a hut erected on his farm at the public expense. At the time of the governor's departure, many of them, by their own industry, and the a.s.sistance he had afforded them, were enabled to have one or two convicts off the store, and employed by them at their farms; and such as were not married were allowed a convict hutkeeper. In general they were not idle, and the major part were comfortably situated.