An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Vol. 1 by David Collins

D >> David Collins >> An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Vol. 1

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On the evening preceding the day of his execution, information was
received from Parramatta, that Simon Burn, a settler, had been stabbed to
the heart about eight o'clock in the evening before, of which wound he
died in an hour. The man who perpetrated this atrocious act was a convict
named Hill, a butcher by trade. It appeared on the trial, which lasted
five hours, that Hill had borne the deceased much animosity for some
time, and, having been all the day (which, to aggravate the offence,
happened to be Sunday) in company drinking with him, took occasion to
quarrel with a woman with whom he cohabited, and following her into an
empty house, whither she had run to avoid a beating, the deceased,
unhappily for him, interfered, and was by Hill stabbed to the heart;
living, as has been said, about an hour, but having just strength enough
to declare in the presence of several witnesses, that the butcher had
killed him. The prisoner attempted to set up an alibi for his defence;
but the fact of killing was incontrovertibly fixed upon him, as well as
the malice which urged his hand to take away the life of his
fellow-creature, and to send him, with the sin upon his head of having
profaned the Lord's day by rioting and drunkenness, unprepared before his
Maker.

This poor man was buried by his widow (an Irish woman) in a corner of his
own farm, attended by several settlers of that and the neighbouring
districts, who celebrated the funeral rites in a manner and with orgies
suitable to the disposition and habits of the deceased, his widow, and
themselves.

Hill was executed on the 16th, and his body dissected according to his
sentence.

On the 17th the _Mercury_, an American brig, commanded by Mr. William
Barnet, anchored in the cove from Falkland's islands. He had nothing on
board for sale, but brought us the very welcome information of his having
seen the officers of the Spanish ship _Descuvierta_ at that place. Being
in want of biscuit, he made application to the commodore Malaspina for a
supply, proffering to settle the payment in any manner that he should
choose to adopt; but the commodore, after sending him a greater quantity
than he had required, assured him that he was sufficiently satisfied in
having assisted a ship whose people, whether English or American, spoke
the language of those gentlemen from whom himself and the officers of the
ships under his command had received, while in New South Wales, such
attention and hospitality. Mr. Barnet understood the _Atrevida_ was in
the neighbourhood, and that no loss or accident had happened in either
ship since their departure from Port Jackson. The _Mercury_ was bound to
the north-west coast of America, and her master purposed quitting this
port as soon as his people, who were all afflicted with that dreadful sea
distemper the scurvy, should be sufficiently recovered.

The period of probation which had been allotted by the late governor to
the services of William Stephenson (one of the people serving in the
stores) expiring this month, his pardon was delivered to him accordingly.
No one among the prisoners could be found more deserving of this
clemency; his conduct had been uniformly that of a good man, and he had
shown that he was trustworthy by never having forfeited the good opinion
of the commissary under whom he was placed in the provision-store.

From the Hawkesbury were received accounts which corroborated the opinion
that the settlers there merited the attacks which were from time to time
made upon them by the natives. It was now said, that some of them had
seized a native boy, and, after tying him hand and foot, had dragged him
several times through a fire, or over a place covered with hot ashes,
until his back was dreadfully scorched, and in that state threw him into
the river, where they shot at and killed him. Such a report could not be
heard without being followed by the closest examination, when it appeared
that a boy had actually been shot when in the water, from a conviction of
his having been detached as a spy upon the settlers from a large body of
natives, and that he was returning to them with an account of their
weakness, there being only one musket to be found among several farms. No
person appearing to contradict this account, it was admitted as a truth;
but many still considered it as a tale invented to cover the true
circumstance, that a boy had been cruelly and wantonly murdered by them.

The presence of some person with authority was becoming absolutely
necessary among those settlers, who, finding themselves freed from
bondage, instantly conceived that they were above all restrictions; and,
being without any internal regulations, irregularities of the worst kind
might be expected to happen.

On the morning of the 25th a civil court was assembled, for the purpose
of investigating an action brought by one Joyce (a convict lately
emancipated) against Thomas Daveny, a free man and superintendant of
convicts at Toongabbie, for an assault; when the defendant, availing
himself of a mistake in his christian name, pleaded the misnomer. His
plea being admitted, the business was for that time got over, and before
another court could be assembled he had entered into a compromise with
the plaintiff, and nothing more was heard of it.

In the evening of the same day the _Surprise_ transport arrived from
England, whence she sailed on the 2nd of last May, having on board sixty
female and twenty-three male convicts, some stores and provisions, and
three settlers for this colony.

Among the prisoners were, Messrs. Muir, Palmer, Skirving, and Margarot,
four gentlemen lately convicted in Scotland of the crime of sedition,
considered as a public offence, and transported for the same to this
country.

We found also on board the _Surprise_ a Mr. James Thompson, late
surgeon of the _Atlantic_ transport, but who now came in quality of
assistant-surgeon to the settlement; and William Baker, formerly here a
sergeant in the marine detachment, but now appointed a superintendant of
convicts.

A guard of an ensign and twenty-one privates of the New South Wales corps
were on board the transport. Six of these people were deserters from
other regiments brought from the Savoy; one of them, Joseph Draper, we
understood had been tried for mutiny (of an aggravated kind) at Quebec.

This mode of recruiting the regiment must have proved as disgusting to
the officers as it was detrimental to the interests of the settlement. If
the corps was raised for the purpose of protecting the civil
establishment, and of bringing a counterpoise to the vices and crimes
which might naturally be expected to exist among the convicts, it ought
to have been carefully formed from the best characters; instead of which
we now found a mutineer (a wretch who could deliberate with others, and
consent himself to be the chosen instrument of the destruction of his
sovereign's son) sent among us, to remain for life, perhaps, as a check
upon sedition, now added to the catalogue of our other imported vices.

This ship touched only at Rio de Janeiro, between which port and the
south-west cape of this country the winds which they met with very much
favoured, in the idea of Mr. Campbell the master, the opinion of a
passage being readily made to the Cape of Good Hope, or to India, round
by Van Dieman's Land.

Among other articles of information now received, we learned that
Governor Hunter, with the _Reliance_ and _Supply_, two ships intended to
be employed in procuring cattle for the colony, might be expected to
arrive in about three months. The governor was to bring out with him a
patent for establishing a court of criminal judicature at Norfolk Island.

The two natives in England were said to be in health, and anxious for the
governor's departure, as they were to accompany him. They had made but
little improvement in our language.

The _Surprise_ anchoring in the cove after dark, she saluted at sunrise
the following morning with fifteen guns.

A theft was committed in the course of the month in one of the out-houses
belonging to Government House, used as a regimental storeroom; the
articles stolen were fifteen shirts and seventeen pair of shoes. In
searching among the rocks and bushes for this property, three white and
two check shirts, one pair of trousers, and one pair of stockings, were
found; but so damaged by the weather as to be entirely useless. These
must have been planted (to use the thiefs phrase) a considerable time;
for every mark or trace which could lead to a discovery of the owner was
entirely effaced.

The storeships being cleared of their cargoes, a survey was made upon
such part of them as was damaged, which was found to be very
considerable. A serving of slops was immediately issued to the male and
female convicts; the men receiving each one jacket, one waistcoat, one
shirt, one hat, and one pair of breeches; the women one petticoat, one
shift, one pair of stockings, one cap, one neck-handkerchief, one hat, and
one jacket made of raven duck. A distinction was made in the articles of
the slops served to watchmen and overseers, each receiving one coat
instead of a jacket, one pair of duck trousers instead of a pair of
breeches, and one pair of shoes.

On the 21st died an industrious good young man, Joseph Webb, a settler at
the district named Liberty Plains. He had been working in his ground, and
suddenly fell down in an apoplectic fit. We have seen that another
settler was murdered, and two male convicts were executed. Burn had been
an unfortunate man; he had lost one of his eyes, when, as a convict, he
was employed in splitting paling for government; his farm had never
succeeded; himself and his wife were too fond of spirituous liquors to be
very industrious; and he was at last forced out of the world in a state
and in a manner shocking to human nature.

November.] Since our establishment in this harbour but few accidents had
happened to boats. On the 1st of this month, however, the longboat of the
_Surprise_, though steered by one of the people belonging to the
settlement, was overset on her passage from the cove to Parramatta, in a
squall of wind she met with off Goat Island, with a number of convicts
and stores on board. Fortunately, no other loss followed than that
occasioned by the drowning of one very fine female goat, the property of
Baker the superintendant.

On the following day died Mr. Thomas Freeman, the deputy-commissary of
stores and provisions employed at Parramatta. He was in his fifty-third
year, and in this country ended a life the greater part of which had been
actively and usefully employed in the king's service. His remains were
interred in the burial-ground at Parramatta, and were attended by the
gentlemen of the civil department residing in that township.

On the morning of the 9th the ships _Resolution_ and _Salamander_ left
the cove, purposing to sail on their fishing voyage; soon after which, it
being discovered that three convicts, Mary Morgan and John Randall and
his wife, were missing, a boat was sent down the harbour to search the
_Resolution_, on board of which ship it was said they were concealed. No
person being found, the boat returned for further orders, leaving a
sergeant and four men on board; but before she could return, Mr. Locke
the master, after forcing the party out of his ship, got under way and
stood out to sea. Mr. Irish, the master of the _Salamander_, did
not accompany him; but came up to the town, to testify to the
lieutenant-governor his uneasiness at its being supposed that he could
be capable of taking any person improperly from the colony.

On the day following it appeared that several persons were missing, and
two convicts in the night swam off to the _Salamander_, one of whom was
supposed to have been drowned, but was afterwards found concealed in her
hold and sent on shore. The _Resolution_ during this time was seen
hovering about the coast, either waiting for her companion, or to pick up
a boat with the runaways. On the 13th, the _Salamander_ got under way,
with a southerly wind; but it falling calm when the ship was between the
Heads, she drifted, and was set with the ebb tide so near the north head
of the harbour as to be obliged to anchor suddenly in eighteen fathoms
water. When anchored they got a kedge-anchor out, and began to heave; but
the surf on the head and the swell from the sea were so great, occasioned
by the late southerly winds, that in heaving the cable parted.
Fortunately the stream-hawser hung her; and a breeze from the northward
springing up, she was brought into the harbour with the loss of an
anchor. This loss being repaired by her getting another from the
_Surprise_, she was enabled to sail finally on the 15th.

The impropriety of the conduct of the _Resolution's_ master was so
glaring, that the lieutenant-governor caused some depositions to be taken
respecting it, which he purposed transmitting to the navy-board. This man
had been permitted to ship as many persons from the settlement as he
stated to be necessary to complete his ship's company; notwithstanding
which, there was not any doubt of his having received on board, without
any permission, to the number of twelve or thirteen convicts whose terms
of transportation had not been served. No difficulty had ever been found
by any master of a ship, who would make the proper application, in
obtaining any number of hands that he might be in want of, but to take
clandestinely from the settlement the useful servants of the public was
ungrateful and unpardonable. It was to be hoped that government, if the
facts could be substantiated against him, would make his person a severe
example to other masters of ships coming to this port.

On the 23rd, after an absence of eight weeks and two days, the _Daedalus_
returned from Norfolk Island. Ten days of this time were passed in going
thither, and sixteen in returning; the intermediate time was consumed in
landing one, and receiving on board the other detachment, with their
baggage.

Several persons, whose sentences of transportation had expired, and who
preferred residing in New South Wales, together with ten of the marine
settlers, who had given up their grounds in consequence of the late
disappointment which they experienced in respect of their corn bills, and
had entered into the New South Wales corps, arrived in this ship.

We understood that Phillip Island had been found to answer extremely well
for the purpose of breeding stock. Some hogs which were allowed to be
placed there in August 1793, the property of an individual, had increased
so prodigiously, as to render the raising hogs there on account of
government an object with the lieutenant-governor.

The _Daedalus_ immediately began preparations for her departure for
England; and Lieutenant-governor Grose signified his intention of
quitting the settlement by that opportunity.

The lieutenant-governor having set apart for each of the gentlemen who
came from Scotland in the _Surprise_ a brick hut, in a row on the east
side of the cove, they took possession of their new habitations, and soon
declared that they found sufficient reason for thinking their situations
'on the bleak and desolate shores of New Holland' not quite so terrible
as in England they had been taught to expect.

The _Surprise_ was discharged this month from government employ, and
Mr. Campbell began to prepare for making his passage to Bengal (whither he
was bound) by the south cape of this country. Of the female prisoners who
came out in this ship one was buried on the 21st; she had lain in of a
dead child, and died shortly after of a milk fever. Her husband, a free
man, came out with her to settle in the country.

Reaping our wheat-harvest commenced this month.

December.] The people of the _Mercury_ being perfectly recovered from the
disorder which afflicted them when they arrived, that vessel sailed on
the 7th of December for the north-west coast of America. The master had
permission to ship five persons belonging to the colony, and on the day
of his sailing several others were missing from the labouring gangs, and
were supposed to have made their escape in her; but on the following
morning they were all at their respective labours, not having been able
to get on board.

Some of the seamen belonging to this vessel, preferring the pleasures
they met with in the society of the females and the free circulation of
spirituous liquors which they found on shore, to accompanying Mr. Barnet
to the north-west coast of America, had left his vessel some days
previous to her sailing. Application being made to the lieutenant-governor,
several orders were given out calculated to induce them to return to their
duty, informing them, that if they remained behind they would be
certainly sent to hard labour, and the persons who had harboured them
severely punished. But our settlements had now become so extensive, that
orders did not so readily find their way to the settlers, as runaways and
vagrants, who never failed of finding employment among them, particularly
among those at the river.

On the 8th a farm of twenty-five acres of ground in the district of
Concord was sold by public auction for thirteen pounds. Four acres were
planted with Indian corn, and half an acre with potatoes; there was
beside a tolerable hut on the premises. This farm was the property of
Samuel Crane, a soldier, who, too industriously for himself, working on
it on the Sunday preceding his death, received a hurt from a tree which
fell upon him, and proved fatal.

Every preparation for accommodating the lieutenant-governor and his
family being completed on board the _Daedalus_, he embarked in the
evening of the 15th. Previous to his departure, such convicts as were at
that time confined in the cells, or who were under orders for punishment,
were released; several grants of lands were signed, conveying chiefly
small allotments of twenty-five acres each to such soldiers of the
regiment as were desirous of, and made application for that favour; and
some leases of town lots were given.

With the lieutenant-governor went Mr. White, the principal surgeon of the
colony; Mr. Bain, the chaplain, in whose absence the Rev. Mr. Marsden was
to do his duty; Mr. Laing, assistant-surgeon of the settlement, and mate
of the New South Wales corps; three soldiers; two women, and nine men.
The master of the transport had permission to ship twelve men and two
women, whose sentences of transportation had expired.

The _Surprise_ sailed on the 17th. Mr. Campbell, being in want of hands,
was allowed to receive on board sixteen men. He had shipped a greater
number; but some, regardless of their own situation, and of the effect
such an act might have on others, had been detected in the act of robbing
the ship, and were turned on shore.

Mr. Campbell at his departure expressed his determination of trying his
passage to Bengal by the south cape of this country. The route of the
_Daedalus_ was round the southern extremity of New Zealand.

The lieutenant-governor took with him all the documents which were
necessary to lay before government to explain the state of the different
settlements under his command; such as the commissary's accounts, returns
of stock, remains of provisions, etc, etc.; vouchers, in fact, of that
true spirit of liberality which had marked the whole of his administration
of the public affairs of this settlement.

Our society was much weakened by this departure of our friends; they
carried with them, however, letters to our connexions, and our earnest
wishes for their speedy, pleasant, and safe passage to England.

The number of small boats at this time in the settlement was considerable,
although wretchedly put together. Two of them were stolen during the
month by several Irish prisoners, accompanied by some who came out
in the _Surprise_. In it they went down to the Southhead, whence they
took what arms they could find, and made off to sea. In a very few days
they were all brought in from the adjacent bays, and punished for their
rashness and folly. No example seemed to deter these people from thinking
it practicable to escape from the colony; the ill success and punishment
which had befallen others affected not them, till woeful experience made
it their own; and then they only regretted their ill fortune, never
attributing the failure to their own ignorance and temerity.

In the morning of Wednesday the 24th the signal was made at the
South Head for a vessel (which they had seen the day before). She came in
about three o'clock, and proved to be the _Experiment_, a snow from
Bengal, laden with spirits, sugar, piece-goods, and a few casks of
provisions; the speculation being suggested by Mr. Beyer, the agent for
the _Sugar Cane_ and _Boddingtons_. Those ships had arrived safely at
Bengal, and had sailed thence for England.

The _Experiment_ had had a passage of three months from Calcutta, one
month of which she had passed since she saw the southern extremity of
this country.

We learned from Mr. E. McClellan, the master, that a large ship named the
_Neptune_ had been freighted with cattle, etc in pursuance of the
contract entered into with Mr. Bampton, and had sailed from Bombay in
July last, but was unfortunately lost in the river by sailing against the
monsoon. When Mr. Bampton might be expected was uncertain.

The direction of the colony during the absence of the governor and
lieutenant-governor devolving upon the officer highest in rank then on
service in the colony, Captain William Paterson, of the New South Wales
corps, on Christmas Day took the oaths prescribed by his Majesty's
letters patent for the person who should so take upon him the government
of the settlement. This officer, expecting every day the arrival of
Governor Hunter, made no alteration in the mode of carrying on the
different duties of the settlement now entrusted to his care and
guidance.

At the latter end of the month a general muster was ordered of all the
male convicts, together with the persons who had served their several
terms of transportation, as well those residing at Sydney and Parramatta,
as those on the banks of the river Hawkesbury. The following ration was
also ordered, the maize being nearly expended, viz.

To Civil, Military, Free People, and Free Settlers
8 lbs of flour, 7 lbs of beef, or
4 lbs of pork, 3 pints of peas,
6 oz of sugar.

To Male Convicts
4 lbs of flour 7 lbs of beef, or
4 lbs of pork, 3 pints of peas,
6 ozs of sugar, and 3 pints of rice.

Women and children were to receive the usual proportion, and a certain
quantity of slops was directed to be issued to the male and female
convicts who came out in the _Surprise_ transport, they being very much
in want of clothing.

A jail gang was also ordered to be established at Toongabbie, for the
employment and punishment of all bad and suspicious characters.

Wheat was this month directed to be purchased from the settlers at ten
shillings per bushel. Much of that grain was found to have been blighted
this season. The ground about Toongabbie was pronounced to be worn out,
the produce of the last harvest not averaging more than six or seven
bushels an acre, though at first it was computed at seventeen. The
Northern farms had also failed through a blight.

Our loss by death in the year 1794 was, two settlers; four soldiers; one
soldier's wife; thirty-two male convicts; ten female convicts; and ten
children; making a total of fifty-nine persons.

CHAPTER XXVIII

Gangs sent to till the public grounds
The _Francis_ sails
Regulations for the Hawkesbury
Natives
Works
Weather
Deaths
Produce at the river
Transactions there
Natives
The _Francis_ arrives from the Cape
The _Fancy_ from New Zealand
Information
The _Experiment_ sails for India
A native killed
Weather
Wheat
Criminal Court
Ration reduced
The _Britannia_ hired to procure provisions
Natives at the Hawkesbury
The _Endeavour_ arrives with cattle from Bombay
Deaths
Returns of ground sown with wheat
The _Britannia_ sails for India
The _Fancy_ for Norfolk Island
Convicts
Casualties

1795.]

January.] From the great numbers of labouring convicts who were
employed in the town of Sydney, and at the grounds about Petersham; of
others employed with officers and settlers; of those who, their terms of
transportation having expired, were allowed to provide for themselves;
and of others who had been permitted to leave the colony, public
field-labour was entirely at a stand. The present commanding officer
wishing to cultivate the grounds belonging to government, collecting as
many labourers as could be got together, sent a large gang, formed of
bricklayers, brickmakers, timber-carriage men, etc. etc. to Parramatta
and Toongabbie, there to prepare the ground for wheat for the ensuing
season. At the muster which had been lately taken fifty people were found
without any employment, whose services still belonged to the public;
most of these were laid hold of, and sent to hard labour; and it appeared
at the same time that some few were at large in the woods, runaways, and
vagabonds. These people began labouring in the grounds immediately after
New Year's day, which as usual was observed as a holiday.