Part 22 (1/2)

The gale now raged with the most violent fury, which defies all description: whole forests seemed, as it were, swept away by the roots, and many of the trees were carried to a considerable distance. By one o'clock in the afternoon, there were as many trees blown down round the settlement as would have employed fifty men for a fortnight to cut down. The swamp and the adjoining vale were overflowed, and had every appearance of a large, navigable river: the surf ran mountains high, but did not overflow the bank, although very near its level: in the road, the sea ran very high, often eclipsing Nepean Isle.

At two in the afternoon, the gardener, two convict men, and one woman, who lived in the vale, came to the settlement, having narrowly escaped with their lives from the falling of trees, and great depth of water in many parts of the valley; and their houses, which had been built and framed with strong logs, were blown down. Three acres of ground that had recently been cleared were almost covered with trees: every thing in the gardens was nearly destroyed, and an acre of Indian corn, which was in a promising state, and nearly fit for reaping, was laid flat and covered with water four feet deep; nay, incredible as it may appear, the violence of the wind blew up cabbages, turnips, and other vegetables by the roots; and what remained in the gardens were turned as black as if they had been burnt.

At three o'clock, the wind veered round to south, and moderated, and at sun-set, the weather was very pleasant.

It was a providential circ.u.mstance that the discovery of the plot (as has already been related) happened previous to this dreadful storm, as, on that account, the convicts had altogether been employed in cutting down large trees round the settlement, to make room for building other houses: had not this been done, our houses would probably have been destroyed and many lives lost, as we had no asylum or retreat whatever: fortunately, however, only one man was hurt; he received a violent contusion on his right side by the branch of a tree falling on him. There was no appearance on any part of the island of such a storm having ever happened before.

During the remainder of the month we had very pleasant weather; the wind at south-west, but a heavy surf kept still running.

On the 2d of March, at day-light, we saw the Supply in the road; on which I sent Mr. Dunavan on board her: he soon returned, bringing letters for me from Governor Phillip, who, I learnt, had sent twenty-one men and six women convicts, with three children in the Supply, to be landed on this island. As I had the fullest confidence in the few free persons who were with me, I did not hesitate one moment in receiving the additional number of convicts who were now arrived, although some of them had very bad characters. By the Supply I also received a bushel of potatoes, and some seed-wheat and barley, that had been saved at Port Jackson; and in the course of the day, all the convicts and the greatest part of the provisions and stores were landed. One turn of provisions were got on sh.o.r.e early the next morning, but the surf increasing, no more boats pa.s.sed that day.

Landing was very practicable on the 4th, and we received the remainder of the provisions and stores; also two three-pounders and their carriages belonging to the Supply, which should have been landed when I first came to the island, but were prevented by the surf. The surf ran so high on the 5th, that no boats could land: at two o'clock the Supply parted her cable, and stood off and on during the night. The Supply's boats were employed during the 6th, in sweeping for her anchor, as no landing could be attempted; but the surf abating on the 7th, we received every article on sh.o.r.e that was intended for the settlement.

I now ordered the surgeon to examine all the convicts who had lately arrived, in order to discover if any of them were infected with diseases, or troubled with complaints of any kind; but on examination, he found them all healthy.

The Supply having ineffectually swept for her anchor till the morning of the 10th, she made sail for Port Jackson at ten o'clock in the forenoon. The ground in the road off Sydney-Bay is very foul in general, although there may be some clear spots. The Golden-Grove parted her cable in the road, but regained her anchor, which the Supply was not lucky enough to accomplish; and she had the additional misfortune of nearly ruining two new cables in sweeping for it. It is somewhat remarkable, that the beach in Sydney-Bay has at times five feet of sand on the stones, and at other times it is all cleared away: this has happened when the wind has been at south-east, and when the beach was filled with sand, the wind has been at south-west: this probably may be the case in the road.

I gave the convicts who were newly arrived until the 18th, to build habitations for themselves; the others were employed at task-work. The numbers now on the island were as follows, viz.

Officers, marines, and free men, 16 Male convicts, 50 Female convicts, 23 Children, 5 Total 94

In order to prevent the water from overflowing the cultivated grounds in the upper part of Arthur's Vale, I set eight labourers to work on the 19th, in cutting a water-way of sixty rods long, by six feet deep.

I have hitherto forborn mentioning the numerous thefts that had almost daily been committed; and, notwithstanding the utmost vigilance, we had not been able to detect any person. Gardens had been constantly plundered; the harness cask, containing the provisions that were daily issued out, had been robbed; and one night an attempt was made to get into the upper part of my house, where the slops were deposited. Great rewards had been offered to tempt one or other to discover their accomplices, but without effect: however, at eleven o'clock in the night of the 23d, Thomas Watson, a convict, was detected in another convict's house, stealing a bag of flour.

From the number of daring thefts which had been committed, without my being able to fix on the thief, it became necessary to inflict a very severe punishment on this offender; and as I had no authority to give him any very severe corporal chastis.e.m.e.nt; after examining witnesses upon oath, and fully proving the theft, I ordered him into confinement, with an intention of sending him to Port Jackson to take his trial. In order to prevent these depredations as much as possible in future, I gave orders for the convicts to be mustered in their huts three times every night, and the hour of muster to be constantly changed: this had a good effect, but did not entirely prevent robberies from being committed.

James Davis, a convict, was punished with twenty-four lashes, on the 25th, for using seditious expressions, and throwing away some fish which had been issued, in a contemptuous manner.

On inspecting the seed-wheat, I found the weevil had begun its depredations, on which, I set some of the labourers to winnow and clear it. On the 30th, some atrocious villain stabbed one of the hogs belonging to the crown, which occasioned its death: this, amongst many other actions which happened, of a similar nature, served to show that there are wretches equal to any act of inhumanity and barbarity.

The sugar-cane, which I planted soon after my arrival on the island, being in a very exposed situation, I removed it on the 31st, and planted out 106 very good joints, which were produced from only four canes. The Indian corn, that had been damaged by the hurricane, was reaped this afternoon.

The different employments of the convicts were as follows:

At task-work, clearing away ground for cultivation, 30 Sawyers, sawing boards, for building a store-house, 2 2 free.

Carpenters, building a store-house, 2 1 free.

Blacksmith, making fish-hooks, and other necessary work, 1 1 free.

Coble-men fis.h.i.+ng, 3 Gardeners, 3 1 free.

Making s.h.i.+ngles, 4 Schoolmaster, 1; officers servants, 3; care of stock, 1, 5 Total 50 5

On the 2d of April, three quarters of an acre of ground was sown with wheat, the produce of that ground which had been first cleared on the north side of Mount George. The season for sowing wheat was as yet rather early, but I did it to try different periods, and to see which would answer best.

April On the 5th, (Sunday) after divine service, Thomas Jones, a convict, acquainted me that the term of his transportation expired that day. I had been informed by Governor Phillip that the different terms for which the convicts were sentenced was not known, as the masters of the transports had left the papers necessary for that information with their owners; but that he had wrote to England for them, and until their arrival no steps could be taken, as the convicts words were not sufficient: I therefore informed Thomas Jones that he was at liberty to work for whom he pleased, and if he chose to work for the public good, he would be used the same as others were, until I received further orders concerning him.

An acre of ground, in Arthur's Vale, was sown with wheat on the 6th; and on the 8th, Noah Mortimer, a convict, was punished with sixty lashes, for refusing to work, on being ordered by the overseer, and being abusive. The 10th, being Good-Friday, I performed divine service, and no work was done on the settlement.

On the 13th, three acres of wheat were sown with four bushels of seed. Every garden vegetable, now growing, were much blighted by west and south-west winds; indeed, this was a very improper time to sow any garden seeds, it being the commencement of winter; but the potatoes I had by me grew out so very fast, that I was obliged to sow them all. I had found the last year that June and July were the best months for sowing the general crop.

We had a very heavy gale of wind this day from the south-west, which was the first southerly wind that had blown with any degree of force since last August; and the last year, the southerly winds did not begin until the 10th of April: from which I conclude that southerly and westerly winds are not frequent in the summer; especially as we had not one gale from that quarter during the last summer.