Volume I Part 40 (1/2)

On the 4th the _Britannia_ returned from the Cape of Good Hope, having been absent six months and three days. Mr. Raven brought alive to his employers, one stallion, twenty-nine mares, three fillies, and twelve sheep. He sailed from the Cape with forty mares on board; but those that died were the worst, and had not been kept up long enough on dry food before they were embarked.

It was evident, on visiting the s.h.i.+p, that every attention had been paid to their accommodation; but horses were generally supposed better calculated than other cattle to endure the weather usually met with between the Cape and this country*.

[* It may be remembered, that in a former voyage to the Cape on a similar errand, she lost twenty-nine cows.]

We had the gratification of hearing that our fleet under Earl Howe had been victorious in a gallant and severe action with the enemy.

On the 15th, when anxiously expecting an arrival from England, we saw Mr. Dell come to anchor in the cove from Norfolk Island.

Though this arrival proved a disappointment to most of us, yet the information we received by it was rather interesting. We now learned, that Mr. Dell had been at New Zealand, where he pa.s.sed three months in the river named by Captain Cook the Thames, employed in cutting spars, for the purpose (as was conjectured here at the time of his departure) of freighting such s.h.i.+p as might arrive from India on Mr. Bampton's account.

In the course of that time they cut down upwards of two hundred very fine trees, from sixty to one hundred and forty feet in length, fit for any use that the East India Company's s.h.i.+ps might require. The longest of these trees measured three feet and a half in the b.u.t.t, and differed from the Norfolk Island pines in having the turpentine in the centre of the tree instead of between the bark and the wood. From the natives they received very little interruption, being only upon one occasion obliged to fire on them. Like other uncivilised people, these islanders saw no crime in theft, and stole some axes from the people employed on sh.o.r.e, gratifying thereby their predilection for iron, which, strange as it may sound to us, they would have preferred to gold. Unfortunately, iron was too precious even here to part with, unless for an equivalent; and it became necessary to convince them of it. Two men and one woman were killed, the seamen who fired on them declaring (in their usual enlarged style of relation) that they had driven off and pursued upwards of three thousand of these cannibals. They readily parted with any quant.i.ty of their flax, bartering it for iron. As the valuable qualities of this flax were well known, it was not uninteresting to us to learn, that so small a vessel as the _Fancy_ had lain at an anchor for three months in the midst of numerous and warlike tribes of savages, without any attempt on their part to become the masters; and that an intercourse might safely and advantageously be opened between them and the colonists of New South Wales, whenever proper materials and persons should be sent out to manufacture the flax, if the governor of that country should ever think it an object worthy of his attention.

From New Zealand the _Fancy_ proceeded to Norfolk Island, and now came hither in the hope of meeting with, or hearing of Mr. Bampton.

From that settlement we gained the following information:

The _Salamander_ touched there, and the _Resolution_ appeared off the island, but had no communication with the sh.o.r.e.

A heavy gale of wind, accompanied with a slight shock of the earth, had done considerable damage, was.h.i.+ng away a very useful wharf and crane at Cascade, but which the governor meant immediately to replace.

The produce of the wheat this season on government's account amounted to three thousand bushels, and that of settlers to fifteen hundred. The Indian corn promised a very plentiful crop; but the settlers were much discouraged by their bills of the last year remaining still unpaid. Much of that corn was obliged to be surveyed, and two thousand bushels had been condemned.

Swine were increasing so rapidly on Phillip Island, now stocked by government, that Mr. King thought he should be able for some time to issue fresh pork during four days in the week. The flour was expended; of salt meat there was a sufficiency in store for eight months. The whole number of persons on the island amounted to nine hundred and forty-five.

A convict well known in this settlement, Benjamin Ingraham, being detected in the act of housebreaking, put an end to his own existence by hanging himself, thus terminating by his own hand a life of wretchedness and villany.

On the 17th St. Patrick found many votaries in the settlement. Some Cape brandy lately imported in the _Britannia_ appeared to have arrived very seasonably; and libations to the saint were so plentifully poured, that at night the cells were full of prisoners.

Settlers, and other persons who had Indian corn to dispose of, were this month informed, that they would receive five s.h.i.+llings per bushel for all they might bring to the public stores. They were likewise told, that a preference would be given to those who had disposed of their wheat to government.

On the 23rd the _Experiment_ sailed for India. Mr. McClellan had been with his vessel to the Hawkesbury, where he had taken in sixty large logs of the tree which we had named the cedar. He had also purchased some of the mahogany of this country. Whether cedar and mahogany were or were not to be readily procured at Bengal, ought to have been well known to this gentleman before he put himself to the trouble, delay, and expence of procuring such a quant.i.ty*; but it was here generally looked upon as a speculation that would not produce him much profit.

[* He was to allow one hundred pounds for as many trees; but we understood that it was to be in the way of barter with articles, sugar, spirits, etc.]

On the day of his sailing, suspecting (as was reported) some design to seize his vessel, he sent on sh.o.r.e three people whom he had s.h.i.+pped here.

They rendezvoused at a hut in the town occupied by one John Chapman Morris; and, on searching it, in the bed of one of them were found a dozen of new Indian s.h.i.+rts marked D. W.; twenty-two new pulicate handkerchiefs; and three pieces of striped gingham. On the possessor being questioned, he said, that they were sold to him while he was at Norfolk Island by the steward of Captain Manning's s.h.i.+p, the _Pitt_. As this was a very improbable story, the house they were in was ordered by the commanding officer to be pulled down. The property, having been disclaimed by Mr. McClennan, was lodged with the provost-marshal; and the parties given to understand, that a reference would be made to Norfolk Island by the first opportunity.

On the 26th, some of our people witnessed an extraordinary transaction which took place among the natives at the brick-fields. A young man of the name of Bing-yi-wan-ne, well known in the settlement, being detected in the crisis of an amour with Maw-ber-ry, the companion of another native, Ye-ra-ni-be Go-ru-ey, the latter fell upon him with a club, and being a powerful man, and of superior strength, absolutely beat him to death. Bing-yi-wan-ne had some friends, who on the following day called Ye-ra-ni-be to an account for the murder; when, the affair being conducted with more regard to honour than justice, he came off with only a spear-wound in his thigh.

The farmers began gathering their Indian corn about the latter end of this month. The weather during the former and latter part of it was wet.

About the time of the equinox, the tides in the cove were observed to be very high.

On the 28th Thomas Webb, a settler, who had removed from his farm at Liberty Plains to another on the banks of the Hawkesbury, was dangerously wounded there, while working on his grounds by some of the wood natives, who had previously plundered his but. About the same time a party of these people threw a spear at some soldiers who were going up the river in a small boat. All these unpleasant circ.u.mstances were to be attributed to the ill treatment the natives had received from the settlers.

At Prospect Hill a woman was bitten by a snake; but by the timely application of some volatile salts by Mr. Irving, her life was saved.

April.] It was determined to let the Toongabbie Hills remain fallow for a season, they being reported to be worn out. Other ground, which had been prepared, was now sown; a spot called the Ninety Acres, and the hills between Parramatta and Toongabbie.

On the 15th, a criminal court was a.s.sembled for the trial of John Anderson and Joseph Marshall, settlers; and John Hyams, Joseph Dunstill, Richard Watson, and Morgan Bryan, convicts; for a rape committed on the body of one Mary Hartley, at the Hawkesbury. The court was obliged to acquit the prisoners, owing to glaring contradiction in the witnesses, no two of them, though several were examined, agreeing in the same point.

But as such a crime could not be pa.s.sed with impunity, they were recommitted, and on the 22nd tried for an a.s.sault, of which being very clearly convicted, the two settlers and Morgan Bryan were sentenced to receive each five hundred lashes, and the others three hundred each; of which sentence they received one half, and were forgiven the remainder.